Ajmer Sharif Dargah

Ajmer Sharif Dargah is built around the tomb of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, a Sufi saint born near Sanjar in present-day Iran, who travelled to India and settled in Ajmer, where he passed away in 1236. Over the centuries his tomb grew into one of the most visited Sufi shrines in the world, revered equally by Muslims and Hindus who travel here seeking blessings, healing, and peace of mind.

Moinuddin Chishti is remembered above all as the founder of the Chishti order in South Asia, a Sufi lineage that took root in Ajmer and spread across the subcontinent through his successors. He is widely known by the honorific Gharib Nawaz, meaning benefactor of the poor, a title earned through a teaching that placed compassion, tolerance and service to ordinary people above ritual display or worldly status. That inclusive message is part of why the dargah drew devotees across religious lines from very early on, and why it continues to do so today, with the saint's emphasis on love and humility often cited as a bridge between India's Hindu and Muslim communities rather than a marker of division.

The domed marble shrine seen today was commissioned in 1332 by the Delhi Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, and successive rulers, including Mughal emperors, added gateways, courtyards and halls over the following centuries. Visitors pass through three grand entrances on the way to the inner sanctum: the Nizam Gate, the Shahjahani Gate, and the towering Buland Darwaza, each donated by a different ruling dynasty as an offering to the saint. The Mughal emperor Humayun was among the shrine’s earliest royal devotees, visiting in 1543 to seek the saint’s blessings while trying to reclaim his throne, setting a precedent of Mughal patronage that Akbar and Jahangir later continued.

Inside the complex stands the Jala Hara, a stone water store historically used to hold water for ritual purification before devotees approach the tomb. Just as striking are two massive iron cauldrons, or 'Deghs', gifted by Mughal emperors: one presented by Akbar with a capacity of roughly 4,800 kilograms of rice, and a second, smaller Degh donated later by Jahangir that holds around 1,500 kilograms. Every year during the saint's Urs (death anniversary) and on other holy occasions, these cauldrons are used to cook enormous quantities of sweetened rice for pilgrims.

The most famous of these dishes is Tabarruk, a sweet rice preparation cooked overnight in the great Deghs and distributed to devotees the following morning as a blessed offering. This cooking tradition is said to have been started by Akbar himself nearly 400 years ago, and by long-standing custom, no meat is ever cooked in the sacred cauldrons — only the sweetened rice offering that pilgrims queue for at dawn.

The Chishti Order's Lasting Reach

The Sufi order Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti founded in Ajmer went on to become one of the most influential Sufi lineages in South Asia, with successor saints establishing their own shrines and centres of learning across the subcontinent, from Delhi to the Deccan. This spread meant Ajmer Sharif came to occupy something like a spiritual capital status within the Chishti tradition, a position it retains today as the order's most visited and revered site, drawing pilgrims not only from across India but from Pakistan, Bangladesh and further afield in the wider Muslim world.