Jaipur: A local court in Rajasthan’s Ajmer issued notices to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and the Ajmer Dargah Committee over a petition seeking a survey of the renowned Ajmer Sharif Dargah. This comes even as Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh remains on edge following a court-ordered survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid there.
The petition was filed by Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta who told the Indian Express newspaper that there was a temple at Ajmer Sharif Dargah like “in Kashi and Mathura”. Civil Judge Manmohan Chandel issued notices after Gupta claimed in his petition that the dargah — the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti – was a Shiva temple. The court order has not been uploaded online or shared with the petitioners so far.
Gupta claimed that Har Bilas Sarda, “who held an important position during British Rule, wrote in 1910 about the presence of a Hindu temple”. According to Gupta, in one of his books, Sarda, a judge, politician, and academic, wrote about the dargah: “Tradition says that inside the cellar is the image of Mahadeva in a temple, on which sandal used to be placed every day by a Brahmin family still maintained by the dargah as gharyali (bell striker)”.
