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This article points that the popular Ajmer Sufi Shrine (Dargah) of Khwaja Chisti in India was built on a demolished Hindu Temple (Varaha Temple). What are the historical sources for such a claim?

The link claims to have evidence from books Gulshan-i-Ibrahimi by Ferishta and the book Prithviraj Raso by Chand Bardai.

Also I found some books on ancient history by ferishta here, but it is hard to understand and get the above information.

Also are there any archaeological studies for the these incidents?

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  • That site rings a lot of crazy-alarms to be honest. It's incoherent, rambling and hateful. And the All-caps doesn't help. I can't find anything to support it, but that doesn't say anything, I wouldn't expect it to be in English even if it exists.
    – Lennart Regebro
    Commented Nov 18, 2013 at 18:36
  • Romila Thapar in "Early India" (pp 48) does say that a Hindu Temple was converted to a Muslim Mosque at Ajmer. But her context is that Religious exchange and interchange cannot be simply explained either by tolerance or bigotry. She also refers to Buddhist "chaityas" being converted to Hindu temples.
    – Rajib
    Commented Feb 19, 2014 at 17:45
  • @Rajib thanks for the reference, can you update it as an answer quoting the relevant excerpt
    – hist
    Commented Feb 20, 2014 at 9:18
  • ?For which incidents? not sure what you mean. Are you asking "whether there is archaeological evidence to support the hypothesis that the shrine at Ajmer was built over a Hindu temple?"
    – MCW ♦
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 14:04
  • Why would it be thought unusual for conquerers to build their religious buildings on top of those of the conquered people, or simply take the existing buildings for their own use? It's absolutely the norm: see current news articles re the Hagia Sophia, for instance, or the number of Roman buildings taken over by Christians.
    – jamesqf
    Commented Jul 14, 2020 at 16:57

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Romila Thapar in "Early India" (pp 48) does say that a Hindu Temple was converted to a Muslim Mosque at Ajmer. But her context is that Religious exchange and interchange cannot be simply explained either by tolerance or bigotry. She also refers to Buddhist "chaityas" being converted to Hindu temples. Note however, there is no direct reference to the Chisti Shrine, although it is quite likely the one.
What does derive, though is that there must be references elsewhere to at least some shrine being a converted Hindu temple.

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  • +1 Thanks, but in Ajmer there is only one dargah\shrine hence most likely its the Khawaja Shrine as you alluded. It would be nice if you could add more references.
    – hist
    Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 16:06

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