The Somnath temple (additionally referred to as the Deo Patan) positioned in Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra at the western coast of Gujarat, India is assumed to be the primary some of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva.It’s miles an important pilgrimage and vacationer spot of Gujarat. Reconstructed numerous times inside the beyond after repeated destruction by using numerous invaders and rulers,the prevailing temple turned into reconstructed in the Chaulukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in may 1951. The reconstruction changed into started out beneath the orders of the home Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel and completed after his demise.Presently top minister of India Narendra Modi is the president of Somnath Mandir consider.

The web site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage web site from historic instances as a consequence of being a triveni sangam (the confluence of three rivers: Kapila, Hiran and the mythical Sarasvati). Soma, the Moon god, is thought to have lost his lustre because of a curse, and he bathed inside the Sarasvati River at this website online to regain it. The end result is the waxing and waning of the moon, absolute confidence an allusion to the waxing and waning of the tides at this beach area. The name of the town Prabhas, meaning lustre, in addition to the alternative names Someshvar and Somnath (“the lord of the moon” or “the moon god”) arise from this way of life. Consistent with popular subculture documented with the aid of J. Gordon Melton, the primary Shiva temple at Somnath is believed to were constructed at a few unknown time in the past. The second temple is said to had been built at the same web site by means of the “Yadava kings” of Vallabhi around 649 CE. In 725 CE, Al-Junayd, the Arab governor of Sindh is stated to have destroyed the second one temple as part of his invasions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II is said to have constructed the 1/3 temple in 815 CE, a massive shape of crimson sandstone.

But, there may be no historical report of an assault on Somnath by using Al-Junayd. Nagabhata II is thought to have visited tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara (the Lord of the Moon), which can also or won’t be a connection with a Shiva temple due to the fact the city itself was known with the aid of that name.The Chaulukya (Solanki) king Mularaja likely constructed the first temple on the web page someday earlier than 997 CE, even though a few historians believe that he may also have renovated a smaller in advance temple. In 1024, at some stage in the reign of Bhima I, the prominent Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, plundering the Somnath temple and breaking its jyotirlinga. He took away a booty of 20 million dinars.Historians expect the damage to the temple by means of Mahmud to were minimal because there are records of pilgrimages to the temple in 1038, which make no mention of any harm to the temple.But, powerful legends with problematic element evolved inside the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmud’s raid,which “electrified” the Muslim world according to student Meenakshi Jain.They later boasted that Mahmud had killed 50,000 devotees who attempted to shield the temple, a formulaic determine.

The temple at the time of Mahmud’s attack appears to had been a timber shape, which is said to have decayed in time (kalajirnam). Kumarapala (r. 1143–seventy two) rebuilt it in “exquisite stone and studded it with jewels,” in line with an inscription in 1169. For the duration of its 1299 invasion of Gujarat, Alauddin Khalji’s navy, led through Ulugh Khan, defeated the Vaghela king Karna, and sacked the Somnath temple.Legends within the later texts Kanhadade Prabandha (15th century) and Khyat (seventeenth century) country that the Jalore ruler Kanhadadeva later recovered the Somnath idol and freed the Hindu prisoners, after an assault at the Delhi military near Jalore.However, other sources kingdom that the idol became taken to Delhi, wherein it turned into thrown to be trampled below the feet of Muslims.Those sources include the current and near-current texts such as Amir Khusrau’s Khazainul-Futuh, Ziauddin Barani’s Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi and Jinaprabha Suri’s Vividha-tirtha-kalpa. It’s far viable that the tale of Kanhadadeva’s rescue of the Somnath idol is a fabrication via the later writers. Instead, it’s miles viable that the Khalji army changed into taking more than one idols to Delhi, and Kanhadadeva’s army retrieved considered one of them.

The temple became rebuilt by Mahipala I, the Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the lingam changed into installed by his son Khengara someday among 1331 and 1351.As past due because the 14th century, Gujarati Muslim pilgrims have been cited by way of Amir Khusrow to stop at that temple to pay their respects earlier than departing for the Hajj pilgrimage.In 1395, the temple turned into destroyed for the 0.33 time via Zafar Khan, the ultimate governor of Gujarat beneath the Delhi Sultanate and later founding father of Gujarat Sultanate.In 1451, it turned into desecrated with the aid of Mahmud Begada, the Sultan of Gujarat. By using 1665, the temple, one in all many, became ordered to be destroyed via Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.In 1702, he ordered that if Hindus revived worship there, it have to be demolished absolutely.