Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra in Ajmer is one the oldest mosques in north India. Claims are being made that it stands on the remains of a ‘Sanskrit college and temple’
Ajmer’s Adhai Din ka Jhonpra: A 12th-century mosque
The Ajmer Mosque was commissioned by Qutbuddin Aibak, a slave-turned-general in the Ghurid army, who established the Mamluk Dynasty to kickstart the Delhi Sultanate in 1206.
It was commissioned by Qutabuddin after the Muhammad of Ghor defeated Prithviraj III (popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan) in the Second Battle of Tarain.
The Afghan invader went on to sack Ajmer (then known as Ajaymeru), the capital of the Chauhan dynasty.
Ajmer-based jurist Har Bilas Sarda wrote in Ajmer: Historical And Descriptive (1911) that during his short stay in the city, Muhammad of Ghor “destroyed the pillars and foundations of the idol temples”, and “dismantled” Visaldeva’s College, “a portion of it converted into a mosque” known today as Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra.
Sarda’s book is the primary historical source cited by the petitioners in the Dargah Sharif survey petition.
According to legend, the mosque gets its name — literally meaning “the shed of two-and-a-half-days” — from the fact that Qutabuddin had ordered for it to be built in only 60 hours.
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