The Chhoti Dargah was not properly maintained in the times of Buchanan who mentions “Fakirs have been allowed to boil their pots in the porticos, and have overwhelmed them with soot, to remedy which irregular patches over the pots have been whitewashed.

One of the corner chambers is occupied by a beastly ascetic, who has shut up the doors and windows with old pots, clay and cow-dung patched together in the rudest manner, nor are any pains taken to keep the place in repair; yet the descendant of the saint has 6,000 bighas free of rent, and that of the richest quality. The whole is said to be expended in the feeding in idle squalid mendicants, vagrants who are in this country an intolerable nuisance.” Today it is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, but is in use by the pilgrims who come from large distances.

To be continued....