Ajmer in the context of "Aravalli Range"

The Chishti order (Persian: چشتیه, romanized: Čištiya) is a Sufi order of Sunni Islam named after the town of Chisht, Afghanistan where it was initiated by Abu Ishaq Shami. The order was brought to Herat and later spread across South Asia by Mu'in al-Din Chishti in the city of Ajmer.

The Chishti order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. The Chishti order is primarily followed in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent. The Chishti order was the first of the four main Sufi orders that became well-established in South Asia, which are the Qadiri, Chishti, Naqshbandi and Suhrawardi Sufi orders. Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti introduced the Chishti Order in Ajmer (Rajasthan, India) sometime in the middle of the 12th century. He was eighth in the line of succession from the founder of the Chishti Order, Abu Ishaq Shami. There are now several branches of the order, which has been the most prominent South Asian Sufi brotherhood since the 12th century.

Prithviraja III (IAST: Pṛthvī-rāja; 28 May 1166 – February 1192), popularly known as Prithviraj Chauhan or Rai Pithora, was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, with his capital at Ajmer in present-day Rajasthan in north-western India. Ascending the throne as a minor in 1177 CE, Prithviraj inherited a kingdom which stretched from Thanesar in the north to Jahazpur (Mewar) in the south, which he aimed to expand by military actions against neighbouring kingdoms, most notably defeating the Chandelas.

Prithviraj led a coalition of several Rajput kings and defeated the Ghurid army led by Muhammad of Ghor near Taraori in 1191 However, in 1192, Muhammad returned with an army of Turkish mounted archers and defeated the Rajput army on the same battlefield. Prithviraj was captured and summarily executed, although his minor son Govindaraja was reinstated by Muhammad as his puppet ruler in Ajmer. His defeat at Tarain is seen as a landmark event in the Islamic conquest of India, and has been described in several semi-legendary accounts, most notably the Prithviraj Raso.

Panchayatana puja (IAST Pañcāyatana pūjā) also known as Pancha Devi Deva Puja is a system of puja (worship) in the Smarta sampradaya, which is one of four major sampradayas of Hinduism. It consists of the worship of five deities set in a quincunx pattern, the five deities being Ganesha, Mahadevi, Shiva, Vishnu and Surya. Sometimes an Ishta Devata (any personal god of devotee's preference) or Indra or Kartikeya is the sixth deity in the mandala (see Shanmata).

Panchayatana puja has been attributed to Adi Shankara, the 8th century CE Hindu philosopher. It is a practice that became popular in medieval India. However, archaeological evidence suggests that this practice long predates the birth of Adi Shankara. Many Panchayatana mandalas and temples have been uncovered that are from the Gupta Empire period, and one Panchayatana set from the village of Nand (about 24 kilometers from Ajmer) has been dated to belong to the Kushan Empire era (pre-300 CE). The Kushan period set includes Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, Shakti and one deity whose identity is unclear. According to James Harle, major Hindu temples from 1st millennium CE embed the pancayatana architecture very commonly, from Odisha to Karnataka to Kashmir; and the temples containing fusion deities such as Harihara (half Shiva, half Vishnu) are set in Panchayatana worship style.

Mu'in al-Din Hasan Chishti Sijzi (Persian: معین الدین چشتی, romanized: Muʿīn al-Dīn Chishtī; 1 February 1143 – 15 March 1236), known reverentially as Khawaja Gharib Nawaz (Persian: خواجه غریب نواز, romanized: Khawāja Gharīb Nawāz), was a Persian Sayyid Islamic scholar and mystic from Sistan, who eventually ended up settling in the Indian subcontinent in the early 13th-century, where he promulgated the Chishtiyya order of Islamic mysticism. This particular Tariqa (order) became the dominant Islamic spiritual order in medieval India. Most of the Indian Sunni saints are Chishti in their affiliation, including Nizamuddin Awliya (d. 1325) and Amir Khusrow (d. 1325).

Having arrived in the Delhi Sultanate during the reign of the sultan Iltutmish (d. 1236), Muʿīn al-Dīn moved from Delhi to Ajmer shortly thereafter, at which point he became increasingly influenced by the writings of the Sunni Hanbali scholar and mystic ʿAbdallāh Anṣārī (d. 1088), whose work on the lives of the early Islamic saints, the Ṭabāqāt al-ṣūfiyya, may have played a role in shaping Muʿīn al-Dīn's worldview. It was during his time in Ajmer that Muʿīn al-Dīn acquired the reputation of being a charismatic and compassionate spiritual preacher and teacher; and biographical accounts of his life written after his death report that he received the gifts of many "spiritual marvels (karāmāt), such as miraculous travel, clairvoyance, and visions of angels" in these years of his life. Muʿīn al-Dīn seems to have been unanimously regarded as a great saint after his death.

The Kingdom of Amber, later the Kingdom of Jaipur, was located in the north-eastern historic Dhundhar region of Rajputana and was ruled by the Kachwaha Rajput clan. It was established by Rao Dulha Rai, possibly the last ruler of the Kachchhapaghata dynasty of Gwalior who later migrated from Narwar to Dausa and started his kingdom there with the support of Chahamanas of Shakambhari with coalition of Gaur dynasty of sheopur in the 11th century. Mostly through 11th to 15th century, the kingdom faced stagnation, and resources were scarce. Under Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan, its Raja Pajjwan dev of Ajmer, battled Muhammad Ghori. Raja Chandrasen of Amber became a Sisodia under him and fought in the Battle of Bayana and The Battle of Khanwa under Raja Prithviraj Kachhwaha.

Under Raja Bharmal, the kingdom heavily aligned with the Mughals and Akbar. His son and grandson Raja Bhagwant Das and Raja Man Singh I were leading generals in Akbar's army and helped him in expanding the empire. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I served under Shah Jahan and became a distinguished general. He fell out of Aurangzeb's favour when he was suspected of helping Shivaji escape from Mughal captivity in 1664. Sawai Jai Singh II became the ruler during the decline of the Mughal Empire. He successfully rebelled against the Mughals in 1708 to regain his confiscated kingdom. After Jai Singh's death, the kingdom was drained of its resources during the civil war amongst his sons Ishwari Singh and Madho Singh I and the Marathas.

The Chahamanas of Shakambhari (IAST: Cāhamāna), colloquially known as the Chauhans of Sambhar or Chauhans of Ajmer, were an Indian dynasty that ruled parts of present-day Rajasthan and neighbouring areas between the sixth and twelfth centuries in the Indian subcontinent. The territory ruled by them was known as Sapadalaksha. They were the most prominent ruling family of the Chauhan Rajput clan.

The Chahamanas originally had their capital at Shakambhari (present-day Sambhar Lake Town). Until the 10th century, they ruled as Pratihara vassals. When the Pratihara power declined after the Tripartite Struggle, the Chahamana ruler Simharaja assumed the title Maharajadhiraja. In the early 12th century, Ajayaraja II moved the kingdom's capital to Ajayameru (modern Ajmer). For this reason, the Chahamana rulers are also known as the "Chauhans of Ajmer".