... and Ajmer

In continuing with my last post, Ajmer is a small, quaint and noisy town in Rajasthan. It is famous for the dargah (mausoleum) of Garib Nawaz (Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti). Legend has it that whatever one asks for at this dargah, is granted by the gods. Akbar apparently visited this place each year on foot, all the way from Agra, asking for a son till Salim was born. My buddy Alam also informs me that he was wished for by his mother here many years ago.

The dargah is surrounded by many ancient buildings. Most notable among them are a mosque built by Shah Jahan, the Akbari mosque built by Akbar and a huge iron vessel, also donated by Akbar, which can cook 100 tons of rice at a time.

Although the Garib Nawaz was a famous Sufi saint who learnt at the feet of great Islamic teachers in Samarkand and Bukhara, the taxi driver who was driving me back from Pushkar had an interesting local spin on the legend. Apparently, the saint used to serve water to travellers out of a goatskin bag, and would hang his bag above an old Shiva lingam. Water would fall on the shivling drop by drop, and this greatly pleased Shiva. So the God appeared to the saint in a dream, and granted him a wish. The Sufi saint asked for fame as a servant of the poor, and that is how he acquired a substantial following in the whole world.

Now even though I am inclined to disbelieve this story, I find it interesting to see how closely Islam and Hinduism intermingled to create this uniquely Indian amalgam that is pervasive in our country today.

Ajmer also has a Jain temple with a solid 50kg statue of pure gold, which depicts the Jain view of the universe - of 13 concentric galaxies circling mount Sumeru, and the birth of Rishabhdev, the first tirthankar at Ayodhya.

I could also go on and on about the beautiful and soothing (and extremely dirty from close quarters!) Ana Sagar, but more on that sometime later...

All in all, quite an interesting visit.