Before the mosque, a poet king's college
In the middle of the twelfth century, Ajmer was the capital of the Chauhan kings, and one of them loved poetry as much as war. On this hillside he built a place of learning.
The city's founder: a twelfth-century Chauhan king named Ajayaraja gave Ajmer its name. His successors built Ana Sagar, the hill fort later called Taragarh, and this college.
The king: Vigraharaja IV, also remembered as Visaladeva, ruled the Chauhan kingdom of Shakambhari and Ajmer in the mid-twelfth century.
Conqueror and patron: he pushed his frontier towards Delhi, and he was also a patron of Sanskrit letters.
At a glance
- Built
- Begun 1192; prayer hall 1199; screen early 13th century
- Built by
- Qutb-ud-din Aibak, designed by Abu Bakr of Herat
- Open
- To visitors of all faiths
- Allow
- About forty-five minutes
- Best time
- Early morning, October to March
- Photography
- Architecture yes, people praying no
- Getting there
- A few minutes' walk uphill from the dargah
- The college: on the slope below the hill fort he founded a centre of Sanskrit learning set around a courtyard, with halls on finely carved stone pillars.
- Found in the 1870s: when the site was surveyed, several inscribed basalt tablets came to light.
- The king's own play: two carry parts of the Harakeli Nataka, a Sanskrit play in honour of Shiva attributed to the king himself, with an inscription dated to 1153.
- A courtier's play: two more carry fragments of the Lalita Vigraharaja Nataka, written in his praise by the court poet Somadeva.
- More tablets: others hold a poem to the gods and a eulogy of an earlier Chauhan king.
- Rare survival: few buildings in India preserve a king's own literary work carved in stone. The tablets are now in the government museum in Ajmer.
- An older shrine: a Jain tradition holds that a shrine stood here before the college. Historians are cautious, but the pillars certainly came from more than one earlier building.
- Cunningham's view: the archaeologist Alexander Cunningham believed the pillars were gathered from many Hindu and Jain temples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
- Old sacred ground: by the time the Chauhan kingdom fell, this hillside was already ancient.
1192, and a new kind of building
The year 1192 changed northern India. After the second battle of Tarain, Prithviraj Chauhan was defeated, Ajmer fell, and within a few years this college had become a mosque.
Muhammad of Ghor: the ruler from the mountains of present-day Afghanistan won the second battle of Tarain in 1192 and broke the power of the Chauhans.
Qutb-ud-din Aibak: his general, who would later found the Delhi Sultanate, took charge of the new conquests.
Begun at once: work on a congregational mosque began that same year, using the college's site and much of its stone.
Facts to know
- Battle
- Second Tarain, 1192
- Work began
- 1192
- Prayer hall done
- 1199, by inscription
- Architect
- Abu Bakr of Herat
- Masons
- Local, temple-trained
- Among the earliest: it was one of the first mosques built in India by the new rulers, a near-contemporary of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque beside the Qutub Minar in Delhi.
- The architect: the design is credited to Abu Bakr of Herat, from the great Persian city, and an inscription records his supervision.
- The date: an inscription over the mihrab, the niche that shows the direction of Mecca, dates the prayer hall's completion to 1199.
- Local hands: Hindu masons trained in temple building cut, carried and assembled the stones. An Islamic plan, built by men whose hands knew another tradition.
- Stacked pillars: the new hall needed a higher roof, so the masons stacked two or three old pillars to make tall composite columns. You can still see the joins.
- Defaced figures: carved figures on many pillars were defaced, because Islam forbids images in a place of prayer.
- What was left: bells, chains, lotus flowers, garlands and geometric bands, still holding up the roof eight centuries later.
Iltutmish's screen of arches
The first thing you see from the courtyard is not the old pillars but a towering wall of stone arches. It was added a generation later, and it was meant to announce that this was a mosque.
The screen: raised in front of the prayer hall during the reign of Sultan Iltutmish of Delhi, running almost the full width of the building.
Seven arches: the central one rises to about eighteen metres, flanked by three smaller arches on each side.
Two minarets: on the central section stand the stumps of two small fluted minarets, echoing the fluting of the Qutub Minar.
Facts to know
- Added
- Early 13th century, under Iltutmish
- Arches
- Seven
- Central arch
- About eighteen metres
- Script
- Kufic and Tughra
- Stone
- Warm yellow
- Cusped edges: the arches are cut in a series of small curves, a shape called an engrailed or cusped arch.
- Not true arches: the Indian masons corbelled them, laying each course a little further out than the one below until the sides met, the way they built temple ceilings.
- The moment before: the true arch with a keystone came later in Indian building. Here you see the moment before it arrived.
- Calligraphy: broad bands of Arabic, in angular Kufic and the flowing, interlaced Tughra, carry verses from the Quran.
- Between them: arabesques, vines and geometric patterns, with Indian motifs here and there, because the same masons carved both.
- Morning glow: the screen is built of a warm yellow stone that glows in the low morning sun.
Why two and a half days?
Every guide in Ajmer will tell you the mosque was built in two and a half days. Every historian will tell you it was not. The truth is more interesting than either.
The name: adhai din ka jhonpra means the hut of two and a half days.
The popular story: Muhammad of Ghor, passing through Ajmer, ordered a mosque ready for prayers within sixty hours, and his workmen managed it.
- A variant: some say only a brick screen wall was built in that time, with the stone mosque coming later. You will hear it on the steps.
- What the stones say: the inscriptions and the building show construction from 1192 to at least 1199, with the screen added later still.
- Sarda's finding: Har Bilas Sarda, Ajmer's own great historian, found the name in no early source.
- An urs: he linked it to an eighteenth-century custom, when followers of a fakir called Panjab Shah held a death-anniversary gathering here that lasted two and a half days.
- A fair: the Archaeological Survey of India similarly links the name to a fair of two and a half days once held here.
- Our favourite part: a building raised in conquest took its popular name from a festival.
Marathas, colonels and conservators
After the sultans, the mosque passed through a long, quiet decline and several rescues. Its survival owes something to unlikely protectors.
Decline: as Ajmer changed hands between Mughals, Rajputs and Marathas, the mosque fell partly out of use, and its stones tempted builders.
A Maratha rescue: in the early nineteenth century, under Daulat Rao Scindia, the central dome was restored.
1809: an inscription forbade anyone from removing stone from the site, a touching record of someone deciding the past was worth guarding.
Facts to know
- Dome restored
- Under Daulat Rao Scindia
- Stone-taking banned
- Inscription of 1809
- British Ajmer
- From 1818
- Cunningham visits
- 1864
- Cared for by
- Archaeological Survey of India
- James Tod: the British took Ajmer in 1818, and the next year the colonel whose Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan shaped how the world saw the region came and admired it.
- Cunningham: the founder of the Archaeological Survey examined it in 1864 and called it the Great Mosque of Ajmer.
- Repairs: under Lord Mayo in the 1870s, and again at the start of the twentieth century.
- Today: after independence it passed into the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.
- Still sacred: it is not a busy congregational mosque now, but many hold it sacred, and visitors are asked to treat it so.
- Context: our journal on Mughal and Rajput history and our guide to the history of Rajasthan.
Walking through, from the lane to the mihrab
The building is compact, but the details reward patience. This is the route our guides take, and the things they stop to show you.
The lane from the dargah
- The climb: the mosque sits just above Ajmer Sharif Dargah, a few minutes up a steep lane of small shops and houses.
- The entrance: a flight of steps, with the hill of Taragarh rising behind.
The courtyard
- Open and large: the cloisters that once ran around three sides are largely gone, but their outlines show the original scale.
- First look: stand at the far end and take in the whole screen before walking closer.
The face of the screen
From a distance: a single grand gesture.
- Up close: thousands of details, lines of calligraphy, rosettes, interlaced stars and creeping vines.
- Ask your guide: to point out the inscriptions and read their meaning.
The central arch and the minarets
- Look up: you can see the courses of stone stepping inwards to meet at the top, the corbelling that gives these arches their layered, slightly pointed look.
- Above: the broken stumps of the two small minarets against the sky.
The pillared hall
A forest of columns: behind the screen lies the prayer hall, the heart of the building.
- Top to bottom: walk the rows and read each pillar.
- What to find: bells on chains, kalash water pots, lotus medallions and kirtimukha faces, the protective lion masks of temple art.
- Worn, but there: many are defaced, but enough remain to see the hand of the original carvers.
The stacked columns
- Find one: a column of two or three pillars set one on top of another.
- The joins: a change in carving, a slight shift in width. The masons' answer to a taller roof, and the best single lesson in the building.
The ceilings
- Overlapping slabs: built in the Indian manner, some carved into shallow domes and lotus patterns.
- Our teacher's method: lie down if the floor is clear and no one minds. It is the best way to see them.
The mihrab
White marble: the prayer niche on the western wall, facing Mecca.
- Its inscription: it records the completion of the prayer hall in 1199.
- Quietly: stand back, and if anyone is praying nearby, wait until they have finished.
Two traditions in the same stone
Visitors sometimes ask us whether this building is a temple or a mosque. Our honest answer is that it is a record of a hard moment in history, and of what craftsmen made of it.
Ajmer is a good place to think about this. A few minutes' walk below, Hindus and Muslims pray side by side at the dargah of a saint who arrived in the same years this mosque was begun.
It began in conquest: a Chauhan college, and almost certainly earlier temples, were dismantled and their stones reused for a mosque for new rulers.
- Not glossed over: our guides do not hide it. The defaced figures are part of the story, and you will see them.
- Skills carried over: the masons corbelled arches because that was how they knew to span a space.
- Equal care: they carved Quranic verses with the precision they had given to temple garlands.
- What grew from it: within generations, that meeting of skills became the Indo-Islamic architecture of the Qutub Minar and the great mosques of Gujarat and Malwa.
- And later: eventually the Mughal masterpieces at Fatehpur Sikri and Agra.
- Not taking sides: we bring guests here to see how much is held in a single building. Our guide to faith and sacred sites in Rajasthan talks about this gently.
The best hour and season
The screen faces east. That one fact tells you when to come.
Early morning: the low sun falls straight onto the arches, and every line of calligraphy throws a shadow.
Warm gold: the yellow stone glows, the courtyard is quiet and the lane below has not yet filled with pilgrims.
Facts to know
- Best hour
- Early morning
- Avoid
- Midday, flat light and hot stone
- Late afternoon
- Soft light inside, screen in shade
- Best season
- October to March
- Plan around
- The Urs
- Perfect pairing: most of our guests come straight after a dawn visit to the dargah.
- Midday: flat, harsh light, and in the hot months the courtyard stones are uncomfortable underfoot.
- Winter afternoons: pleasant, with soft light inside the pillared hall, though the screen is then in shade.
- October to March: the most comfortable season, with clear skies after the monsoon in October and November.
- The Urs: the lanes around the mosque are packed for days, so plan around it for a calm visit. Our guide to the best time to visit Ajmer has the details.
How to visit
The mosque is a protected monument and a sacred place at the same time. A few simple courtesies keep it that way.
A guide: the story lives in the details, and without someone to point them out the pillars are just pillars.
Dress: modestly, with arms and legs covered. Many visitors cover their heads as a courtesy, and women should be ready to.
Facts to know
- Dress code
- Arms and legs covered, a scarf
- Footwear
- Usually off in prayer areas
- Photography
- Architecture generally allowed
- Access
- Steep lane, steps, uneven stone
- Shoes: you will usually remove them before the prayer areas. Socks help on hot stone.
- Photographs: of the architecture, yes. Never of anyone praying, and keep your voice low.
- Mobility: guests with limited mobility can usually manage slowly with help, but tell us in advance so we can plan. Our guide to accessible travel explains how.
- Hands off: do not climb on the pillars, screen or ruined walls, or touch the carving. The stone is eight centuries old and soft in places.
- The shared lane: pilgrims use it too, so keep bags in front of you and give way on the narrow steps.
- Two places, two customs: combine the visit with the dargah but keep the customs of each. Our Ajmer itinerary shows how we pace a day.
What most visitors miss
Most people photograph the arches, walk once through the pillars and leave. These are the things worth staying for.
The king's play in the museum
- Where: the inscribed tablets, with Vigraharaja's play to Shiva, are in the government museum in Akbar's fort in the city centre.
- Closing the circle: the building and the poetry it once housed, a short drive apart.
The bells on the pillars
- What to look for: carved bells hanging from chains, a motif common in temple art.
- Easy to miss: they are small and among the best preserved details. Once you find one, you see them everywhere.
The view from the back
- From the upper edges: you look down over the domes of the dargah and the crowded roofs of old Ajmer, with the hills beyond.
- Why go: it shows how close the two monuments are.
Taragarh above
The fort: the hill behind carries the remains of Taragarh, the Chauhan fort of Ajaymeru, the invincible hill that gave Ajmer its name.
- A morning drive up: the whole city at your feet. Most of the gateways are ruined, but the views are wide.
- Miran Sahib: within the walls is the shrine of a warrior killed here in 1202 and remembered as a saint, which draws its own pilgrims.
A Delhi comparison
- Quwwat-ul-Islam: if you are travelling on to Delhi, see the mosque at the Qutub complex.
- Same decade, same ideas: the same reuse of temple pillars and a similar corbelled screen. Seeing both makes each one clearer.
Who will love it, and how to prepare
This is not a monument that dazzles at first sight. It is one that rewards the curious, and a little reading beforehand repays itself many times over.
Who will love it: anyone who enjoys architecture, history or the meeting of cultures.
Designers: architects and designers come away talking about the corbelled arches.
Who it suits
- Architects
- The corbelled arches
- History readers
- 1192 made physical
- Photographers
- The screen in morning sun
- Older children
- The stacked-pillar puzzle
- Photographers: they love the screen in the morning sun and the long avenues of pillars.
- Families: older children often find it the most memorable stop in Ajmer, because the stacked pillars and the riddle of the name make history a puzzle to solve.
- If you want polish: you may find it rough. Parts are ruined, the courtyard is bare and there are no displays on the spot, which is why a guide matters.
- Pair it with the museum: the college tablets in Akbar's fort make the mosque far easier to picture as it once was.
- Read first: the Chauhans, the battles of Tarain and the early Delhi Sultanate give everything you see a frame.
- Background: our guide to the architecture of Rajasthan explains the forms in plain words, and our Ajmer page sets the city's history in order.
Local tip
Come early, go slowly, and look up. The ceilings and the tops of the pillars hold the best carving.
What to pair with the mosque
The mosque is part of the old city around the dargah, so the best of Ajmer is within a short walk or drive.
Ajmer Sharif Dargah
- A few minutes downhill: the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.
- Our order: the dargah at dawn, then up to the mosque in the morning light.
Akbar's fort and the museum
- Akbar's square palace of 1570: it houses the government museum, with sculpture, arms and the college inscriptions.
- Getting there: a short drive into the city.
Ana Sagar
- The lake: the Chauhan king Arnoraja's twelfth-century lake, with Shah Jahan's marble pavilions on its bank.
- When: the late afternoon. Our guide to things to do in Ajmer has more.
Pushkar
- Over Nag Pahar: fifteen kilometres away, Pushkar and its sacred lake offer the Hindu half of this region's pilgrim story.
- Where most guests stay: there.
Where to stay
There is no grand hotel in Ajmer's old city. For calm and comfort, we look a little further out.
Pushkar resorts: most of our guests stay a short drive over the hill at the Westin Pushkar Resort and Spa or Ananta Spa and Resort, with gardens, pools and quiet nights.
Pratap Mahal: a hotel in the Taj group's SeleQtions collection, between Ajmer and Pushkar among the Aravalli hills.
Facts to know
- Most guests
- Resorts in Pushkar
- Between the towns
- Pratap Mahal
- For a palace
- Kishangarh, about 30 km
- Comparing them: our guide to luxury stays in Pushkar and our comparison of luxury hotels in Ajmer.
- A palace: Kishangarh, about thirty kilometres away, has a lake palace run by its former ruling family.
- A longer journey: Ajmer fits neatly into our sacred Rajasthan journey, which links the great shrines of the state.
