Petition Claims Temple Under Ajmer Dargah, Court Issues Notice

A court in Rajasthan's Ajmer has issued notices to the Archaeological Survey of India and the Centre following a petition that claims that there is a Shiva temple in the dargah of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer. The petition, filed in September, has asked the court to allow worship at the spot again.

The petitioner's advocate, Yogesh Siroja, said civil judge Manmohan Chandel has ordered notices to the Ajmer Dargah Committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) office in New Delhi seeking their response.

The claims come of the heels of similar claims made for key shrines across the country, including the ones in Varanasi, Mathura and the Bhojshala at Dhar. 

The court's order follows violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, where four persons died and many were injured after a clash that was sparked by a local court's order of survey at a mosque. The petitioners had told the court that the mosque was built after destroying an old temple.

Vishnu Gupta, chief of right wing group Hindu Sena, who is the petitioner in the case involving Ajmer Sharif, said, "Our demand was that the Ajmer dargah should be declared as Sankat Mochan Mahadev Temple.

"If the dargah has any kind of registration, then it should be cancelled. Its survey should be done through ASI and Hindus should be given the right to worship there," he was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India.

The petition cites a book by retired judge Harvilas Sharda, written in 1911 and says Hindu carvings and iconography are visible around the Ajmer Dargah, including on the Buland Darwaza. 

The book, "Ajmer: Historical and Descriptive", claims that debris from a Shiva temple was used in building the dargah. The petition also alleges that a Jain temple exists within the sanctum sanctorum of the site.

The Dargah Committee has denied the claims. Syed Sarwar Chishti, secretary of Anjuman Syed Jadgan, said the dargah promotes unity in diversity and pluralism, the dargah has lakhs of followers all across the world from Afghanistan to Indonesia.

"Such acts are against communal harmony and nation. The court has issued notices to three parties today. We will see what we can do. Such acts of targeting age-old mosques in Kashi, Mathura are not good," he was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.

The next hearing of the case will be held on December 20.