Urs major

In the galaxy of Sufi saints, Hazrat Muinuddin Chishti of Ajmer reigns supreme

The summer sun is up early but its rays are not the first to alight upon Nizam Gate. Thousands of eager eyes are already set upon the 70-foot-high entrance to the dargah (tomb) of Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti India's pre-eminent Sufi saint.

The six-day Urs (feast) of the Khwaja is on and Ajmer city is in the grip of insomnia and ecstasy. During the week, more than half a million devotees from all communities will arrive at the dargah from across India and even abroad.
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FAVOURITE SAINT

Mumbai has its Haji Ali, Delhi its Nizamuddin Auliya and Ahmedabad its Sheikh Ahmed Khattu, but few command the kind of pan-India following that the Khwaja does.

The key to his popularity, no doubt, is the Khwaja's persona of Gharib Nawaazu00a0'refuge of the poor'. In India, he pioneered the extreme form of charity that became the hallmark of every notable Sufi to follow.

Then, of course, there's the Khwaja's place at the head of the Chishti Sufi order. Pakistan's Fariduddin
Shakkarganj, Delhi's Qutbuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki and Nizamuddin Auliya, Nagor's Sheikh Hamiduddin and Fatehpur Sikri's Salim Chishti all belong to his school of Sufism.

Finally, what draws other communities to the dargah is the Khwaja's message of universal brotherhood.

Although his arrival in India in the 12th century coincided with the establishment of the first Sultanate in the country an event marked by much bloodshed and iconoclasm the Khwaja opposed bigotry and spread the message of love from his seat in Ajmer.
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CELEBRATING DEATH

The annual Urs is the biggest festival at the dargah. Surprisingly, it commemorates the death not birth of the Khwaja.

Sufis believe that in death, the soul frees itself from the mortal frame to unite with God Almighty. Since the return to God is every Sufi's most cherished goal, they commemorate the passing away of their saints with a grand festival.

The word 'Urs' itself is said to have its root in the Arabic 'Uroos' meaning meeting or union, but also wedding. That explains the lover-beloved CONCEIT inherent in most Sufi mystical songs, wherein the Sufi 'lover' yearns to be united with his 'beloved' God.

The Urs at Ajmer is a six-day affair in memory of the Khwaja's last days. It is observed from the first to the sixth days of Rajab the seventh month of the Islamic calendar.

Legend has it that in the year 1236 AD, the Khwaja had dismissed his followers on the first of Rajab and confined himself inside a cell till his death six days later.

So, while the Urs lasts over the first six days of Rajab, the sixth day Chhati Sharif is held most important.

Special prayers are offered at the dargah on this day from 10 am to 1.30 pm, when a cannon is fired to mark the close of the Urs.u00a0


This pot can cook for 5,000
Devotees stand along the circumference of a pot that can cook enough rice for 5,000 people. The cauldron's diameter is around 10.5 feet. The steel bar in the middle of the cauldron has offerings of devotees. A toy truck on the left was probably gifted by a transport operator along with the silver/gold pendant hanging below it.

The cauldrons are used on special occasions like Urs. On other days, devotees merely drop offerings inside them. Once can see Rs 1000 notes, even dollars in the trough of the cauldron. But photography has been banned inside the dargah ever since the 2007 blast. Visitors must deposit their electronics items outside.
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SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

During the days of Urs, the Dargah Bazaar (the market along the road leading to the dargah) doesn't sleep. The street is suffused with the scent of incense and wet, tender rose petals from the fields of neighbouring Pushkar.
Everything is drowned in the devotional music playing aloud in shops as well as the impromptu performances of itinerant troupes.

Good music qawwali, specifically is a highlight of the Urs. There are nightlong performances in the Mehfil Khana of the dargah. It is widely believed that Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti introduced the singing of qawwalis although music is not encouraged in Islam as a concession towards native Indian practices. Today, however, the qawwali is an integral part of any dargah experience.

As for prayers, the chief attraction is the passage through Jannati Darwaza (heaven's gate) a silver door opened only four times in a year. Walking through it seven times is believed to bestow untold merit and a sure passage to paradise.

Other meritorious acts at the dargah include giving alms and eating at the langar or community kitchen, as it is an affirmation of the equality of all before God.

Food served during the Urs is also special because it is cooked in giant cauldrons gifted to the dargah by the Mughal emperors Akbar and Jahangir in the 16th and 17th centuries. The cauldrons reputedly can cook 4480 kg and 2240 kg rice respectively at a time.

About the cauldron he sent from Agra the smaller of the two Jahangir notes in his biography: "I ordered them to cook food for the poor in that pot, and collect together the poor of Ajmer, to feed them whilst I was there. 5,000 assembled, and all ate of this food to their fill."
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SWEET TAKEAWAYS
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There are two things that Ajmer is famous for, besides its Khwaja. And both are sweet ittar or the essence of roses and soan halwa, a nutty sweet that's sold at over a hundred shops around the dargah.

URS 2009

This year's Urs is the 797th so far (counted in terms of lunar years). It started on June 25 and will culminate in Chhati Sharif on June 30, Tuesday (dates dependent on the sighting of the moon).