On the way to the Shekawati we visited the Dargah Khwaja Sahib in Ajmer. THeSufi teacher Khwaja Muin-ud-din Chishti who died in 1236 is buried here and the current complex which was started in the 13C was completed under Humayan in the 16C. It became the mosy important muslim site in all India and is a massive complex of mosque and mausoleum of beyond cathedral proportions.
We visited the day after the Prophet's birthday but as it is kept as a two-day festival here it was the second day of the festival, and whilst the roads were open and the crowds less than the previous day the Mosque was thronged with people and we could just be pushed through the crowds by a guide who adopted us as we entered and showed Beloved to a stall to buy a handkerchief to cover his head. Cameras were not allowed so I have no pictures.
I am not really sure what happened after that. We were pushed through various gateways full of crowds and had variously to kiss a step, have different people tie red and orange string bands round our wrists, eat a piece of jellabi, give our names and have our heads touched with a brush/fly whisk thing, have an embroidered islamic green scarf rubbed on our face and be given rose heads.
Meanwhile people were bringing flowerheads by the basket load (sold near the entrance next to the handkerchiefs) and pouring them over the Sufi's tomb.
It all seemed very unislamic by the standards of some of our moroccan friends (even though southern morocco has a longstanding sufic tradition) and indeed at subsequent visits to Hindu temples we have experienced similar blessings and rituals.
Khwaja Muin-ud-in Chishti like all Sufis preached the personal experience ofGod by withdrawal from the world but more importantly in an Indian context he preached that all religions were one worshipping the one and only true God ,Allah. This Sufic approach is readily understood by Hindus and with elements of their worship absorbed into the existing sufic trance and chanting; it has left this shrine as one which has not suffered the communal difficulties of say Ayhoda.
We visited the day after the Prophet's birthday but as it is kept as a two-day festival here it was the second day of the festival, and whilst the roads were open and the crowds less than the previous day the Mosque was thronged with people and we could just be pushed through the crowds by a guide who adopted us as we entered and showed Beloved to a stall to buy a handkerchief to cover his head. Cameras were not allowed so I have no pictures.
I am not really sure what happened after that. We were pushed through various gateways full of crowds and had variously to kiss a step, have different people tie red and orange string bands round our wrists, eat a piece of jellabi, give our names and have our heads touched with a brush/fly whisk thing, have an embroidered islamic green scarf rubbed on our face and be given rose heads.
Meanwhile people were bringing flowerheads by the basket load (sold near the entrance next to the handkerchiefs) and pouring them over the Sufi's tomb.
It all seemed very unislamic by the standards of some of our moroccan friends (even though southern morocco has a longstanding sufic tradition) and indeed at subsequent visits to Hindu temples we have experienced similar blessings and rituals.
Khwaja Muin-ud-in Chishti like all Sufis preached the personal experience ofGod by withdrawal from the world but more importantly in an Indian context he preached that all religions were one worshipping the one and only true God ,Allah. This Sufic approach is readily understood by Hindus and with elements of their worship absorbed into the existing sufic trance and chanting; it has left this shrine as one which has not suffered the communal difficulties of say Ayhoda.
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