Somnath Temple — The Shrine Eternal - Revision history

Bbnanawati: Remove two images at founder’s request (tomb of Mahmud drawing; Munshi 1950 photo)

2026-06-11T17:29:05Z

Remove two images at founder’s request (tomb of Mahmud drawing; Munshi 1950 photo)

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:59, 11 June 2026
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	=== The "Gates of Somnath" episode (1842) ===		=== The "Gates of Somnath" episode (1842) ===
	[[File:Tomb of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in 1839-40.jpg\|thumb\|left\|260px\|The tomb of Sultan Mahmud at Ghazni, drawn 1839–40 — the doorway from which Ellenborough’s army carried away the supposed "gates of Somnath" two years later.]]
	[[File:Somnath-Gates-1843-Hart.jpg\|thumb\|right\|260px\|''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' — print by L. W. Hart, 1843. Wallach Division, NYPL.]]		[[File:Somnath-Gates-1843-Hart.jpg\|thumb\|right\|260px\|''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' — print by L. W. Hart, 1843. Wallach Division, NYPL.]]
	After the First Anglo-Afghan War, Governor-General Lord Ellenborough ordered the army retreating from Ghazni to carry away the gates of Mahmud's tomb, proclaiming them the sandalwood gates looted from Somnath eight centuries before. Contemporary prints — such as Lockyer Willis Hart's ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' (1843)<ref name="hart">Hart, Lockyer Willis. ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'', 1843; description of plates by James Atkinson. NYPL Wallach Division.</ref> — record the fascination the episode aroused. Examination showed the gates to be deodar, of Ghazni workmanship — not the originals. They were deposited in Agra Fort, and the "Proclamation of the Gates" was ridiculed in Parliament. The episode matters less for the gates than for what it reveals: by 1842, Somnath was already a symbol through which empires announced their intentions to India.		After the First Anglo-Afghan War, Governor-General Lord Ellenborough ordered the army retreating from Ghazni to carry away the gates of Mahmud's tomb, proclaiming them the sandalwood gates looted from Somnath eight centuries before. Contemporary prints — such as Lockyer Willis Hart's ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' (1843)<ref name="hart">Hart, Lockyer Willis. ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'', 1843; description of plates by James Atkinson. NYPL Wallach Division.</ref> — record the fascination the episode aroused. Examination showed the gates to be deodar, of Ghazni workmanship — not the originals. They were deposited in Agra Fort, and the "Proclamation of the Gates" was ridiculed in Parliament. The episode matters less for the gates than for what it reveals: by 1842, Somnath was already a symbol through which empires announced their intentions to India.

	=== Resurrection (1947–1951) ===		=== Resurrection (1947–1951) ===
	[[File:K M Munshi at Somnath in July 1950.jpg\|thumb\|right\|270px\|'''K. M. Munshi at Somnath, July 1950''' — a construction-era photograph from the year the old ruin came down and the new temple began to rise. Public domain (India, term expired).]]
	Days after the accession of Junagadh, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged at Prabhas on 13 November 1947 that Somnath would rise again. The ruin was taken down after archaeological excavation — B. K. Thapar's dig recorded the earlier temples in succession beneath the shrine — and a new temple in the Solanki style was designed by Prabhashankar Sompura of the hereditary Sompura tradition. K. M. Munshi steered the project after Patel's death; President Rajendra Prasad installed the jyotirlinga on 11 May 1951.<ref name="munshi"/> The reconstruction also occasioned a foundational debate of the new Republic — Prime Minister Nehru objected to official association with the ceremony — placing Somnath in the history of Indian secularism as well as of Indian devotion.		Days after the accession of Junagadh, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged at Prabhas on 13 November 1947 that Somnath would rise again. The ruin was taken down after archaeological excavation — B. K. Thapar's dig recorded the earlier temples in succession beneath the shrine — and a new temple in the Solanki style was designed by Prabhashankar Sompura of the hereditary Sompura tradition. K. M. Munshi steered the project after Patel's death; President Rajendra Prasad installed the jyotirlinga on 11 May 1951.<ref name="munshi"/> The reconstruction also occasioned a foundational debate of the new Republic — Prime Minister Nehru objected to official association with the ceremony — placing Somnath in the history of Indian secularism as well as of Indian devotion.

Bbnanawati: Add construction-era photo: K. M. Munshi at Somnath, July 1950 (PD-India, Commons)

2026-06-11T17:25:02Z

Add construction-era photo: K. M. Munshi at Somnath, July 1950 (PD-India, Commons)

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:55, 11 June 2026
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	=== Resurrection (1947–1951) ===		=== Resurrection (1947–1951) ===
			[[File:K M Munshi at Somnath in July 1950.jpg\|thumb\|right\|270px\|'''K. M. Munshi at Somnath, July 1950''' — a construction-era photograph from the year the old ruin came down and the new temple began to rise. Public domain (India, term expired).]]
	Days after the accession of Junagadh, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged at Prabhas on 13 November 1947 that Somnath would rise again. The ruin was taken down after archaeological excavation — B. K. Thapar's dig recorded the earlier temples in succession beneath the shrine — and a new temple in the Solanki style was designed by Prabhashankar Sompura of the hereditary Sompura tradition. K. M. Munshi steered the project after Patel's death; President Rajendra Prasad installed the jyotirlinga on 11 May 1951.<ref name="munshi"/> The reconstruction also occasioned a foundational debate of the new Republic — Prime Minister Nehru objected to official association with the ceremony — placing Somnath in the history of Indian secularism as well as of Indian devotion.		Days after the accession of Junagadh, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel pledged at Prabhas on 13 November 1947 that Somnath would rise again. The ruin was taken down after archaeological excavation — B. K. Thapar's dig recorded the earlier temples in succession beneath the shrine — and a new temple in the Solanki style was designed by Prabhashankar Sompura of the hereditary Sompura tradition. K. M. Munshi steered the project after Patel's death; President Rajendra Prasad installed the jyotirlinga on 11 May 1951.<ref name="munshi"/> The reconstruction also occasioned a foundational debate of the new Republic — Prime Minister Nehru objected to official association with the ceremony — placing Somnath in the history of Indian secularism as well as of Indian devotion.

Bbnanawati: Add images: 1895 ruin photograph (gallery); tomb of Mahmud at Ghazni 1839-40 (Gates section) — via Commons

2026-06-11T16:45:24Z

Add images: 1895 ruin photograph (gallery); tomb of Mahmud at Ghazni 1839-40 (Gates section) — via Commons

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:15, 11 June 2026
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	File:Somnath-Fergusson-print-2.jpg\|The dome and minar across the fallen masonry — Fergusson Collection		File:Somnath-Fergusson-print-2.jpg\|The dome and minar across the fallen masonry — Fergusson Collection
	File:Somnath-Sykes-1869-west.jpg\|From the west — D. H. Sykes for the ASI, 1869		File:Somnath-Sykes-1869-west.jpg\|From the west — D. H. Sykes for the ASI, 1869
			File:1895 archive photo of the Somnath temple ruins, Veraval Gujarat, Exterior 21.jpg\|A generation later — the ruin photographed in 1895
	</gallery>		</gallery>

	=== The "Gates of Somnath" episode (1842) ===		=== The "Gates of Somnath" episode (1842) ===
			[[File:Tomb of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni in 1839-40.jpg\|thumb\|left\|260px\|The tomb of Sultan Mahmud at Ghazni, drawn 1839–40 — the doorway from which Ellenborough’s army carried away the supposed "gates of Somnath" two years later.]]
	[[File:Somnath-Gates-1843-Hart.jpg\|thumb\|right\|260px\|''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' — print by L. W. Hart, 1843. Wallach Division, NYPL.]]		[[File:Somnath-Gates-1843-Hart.jpg\|thumb\|right\|260px\|''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' — print by L. W. Hart, 1843. Wallach Division, NYPL.]]
	After the First Anglo-Afghan War, Governor-General Lord Ellenborough ordered the army retreating from Ghazni to carry away the gates of Mahmud's tomb, proclaiming them the sandalwood gates looted from Somnath eight centuries before. Contemporary prints — such as Lockyer Willis Hart's ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' (1843)<ref name="hart">Hart, Lockyer Willis. ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'', 1843; description of plates by James Atkinson. NYPL Wallach Division.</ref> — record the fascination the episode aroused. Examination showed the gates to be deodar, of Ghazni workmanship — not the originals. They were deposited in Agra Fort, and the "Proclamation of the Gates" was ridiculed in Parliament. The episode matters less for the gates than for what it reveals: by 1842, Somnath was already a symbol through which empires announced their intentions to India.		After the First Anglo-Afghan War, Governor-General Lord Ellenborough ordered the army retreating from Ghazni to carry away the gates of Mahmud's tomb, proclaiming them the sandalwood gates looted from Somnath eight centuries before. Contemporary prints — such as Lockyer Willis Hart's ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'' (1843)<ref name="hart">Hart, Lockyer Willis. ''The Sandal Wood Gates of Somnauth'', 1843; description of plates by James Atkinson. NYPL Wallach Division.</ref> — record the fascination the episode aroused. Examination showed the gates to be deodar, of Ghazni workmanship — not the originals. They were deposited in Agra Fort, and the "Proclamation of the Gates" was ridiculed in Parliament. The episode matters less for the gates than for what it reveals: by 1842, Somnath was already a symbol through which empires announced their intentions to India.

Bbnanawati: Bbnanawati moved page Somnath Temple to Somnath Temple — The Shrine Eternal: Title chosen by the founder — Munshi’s phrase; plain title remains as redirect

2026-06-11T16:42:09Z

Bbnanawati moved page Somnath Temple to Somnath Temple — The Shrine Eternal: Title chosen by the founder — Munshi’s phrase; plain title remains as redirect

← Older revision	Revision as of 22:12, 11 June 2026
(No difference)

Bbnanawati: 1783 rebuild credited to joint Maratha confederacy (incl. Bhonsle houses of Shivaji line); 1950 Jam Saheb first donation; Shivaji/Somnath record clarified

2026-06-11T16:34:05Z

1783 rebuild credited to joint Maratha confederacy (incl. Bhonsle houses of Shivaji line); 1950 Jam Saheb first donation; Shivaji/Somnath record clarified

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:04, 11 June 2026
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	'''The Chudasama restorations and the Sultanate blows.''' For nearly three centuries of the Delhi Sultanate the temple stood beyond Delhi's reach — no raid on Somnath is recorded under the Mamluk ("Slave") sultans. Delhi's first blow came in 1299, when '''Ulugh Khan''', general of '''Alauddin Khilji''', overran Gujarat; the '''Chudasama''' king '''Mahipala I''' repaired the temple in 1308, and his son '''Khengara''' installed the linga anew (c. 1331–1351).<ref name="gazetteer">Gir Somnath district historical records (Government of Gujarat); Cousens 1931.</ref> The independent sultans of Gujarat struck next — Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah) in 1395, Mahmud Begada in the fifteenth century — and after each blow, worship seeped back.<ref name="cousens"/>		'''The Chudasama restorations and the Sultanate blows.''' For nearly three centuries of the Delhi Sultanate the temple stood beyond Delhi's reach — no raid on Somnath is recorded under the Mamluk ("Slave") sultans. Delhi's first blow came in 1299, when '''Ulugh Khan''', general of '''Alauddin Khilji''', overran Gujarat; the '''Chudasama''' king '''Mahipala I''' repaired the temple in 1308, and his son '''Khengara''' installed the linga anew (c. 1331–1351).<ref name="gazetteer">Gir Somnath district historical records (Government of Gujarat); Cousens 1931.</ref> The independent sultans of Gujarat struck next — Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah) in 1395, Mahmud Begada in the fifteenth century — and after each blow, worship seeped back.<ref name="cousens"/>

	'''Under the Mughals — permission, prohibition, and the breathing temple.''' Mughal rule reached Saurashtra with Akbar's conquest of Gujarat (1573), and the empire's first word at Prabhas was, remarkably, permission: '''Akbar allowed the worship of the linga and appointed officers (desais) to administer the temple''' — for some eight decades Somanatha functioned openly under Mughal authority.<ref name="thapar"/> The policy reversed under '''Aurangzeb''', and the reversal itself tells the story: a farman of 20 November 1665 ordered the temple destroyed; worship returned, so the order had to be given again — in 1701 the viceroy Prince Mohammad Azam was instructed to destroy it "beyond possibility of repair", and in 1706, months before the emperor's death, a final order converted the building into a mosque, as the court chronicle ''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' records.<ref name="mirat">''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' of Ali Muhammad Khan on Aurangzeb's farmans of 1665, 1701 and 1706; Thapar, ''Somanatha'' (2004), on Akbar's grant of worship and temple administration.</ref> That one emperor had to order the same destruction three times in forty years is itself the measure of Prabhas: '''the temple kept breathing between the farmans.''' Two Mughal policies a century apart — Akbar's permission, Aurangzeb's prohibition — frame the era better than any single verdict on the dynasty could: empires changed their minds; the worshippers never did. It was Aurangzeb's converted shell that the colonial photographers would later find. Yet the chain of rebuilders never broke: in '''1783 Ahilyabai Holkar''' of Indore ~~raised~~ the ~~adjacent Somnath~~ temple with its sanctum set underground — so that worship at Prabhas would never again depend on the fate of a roof~~. Hers is~~ the quiet rebuild between the empires, and worship continued in it until 1951.<ref name="gazetteer"/>		'''Under the Mughals — permission, prohibition, and the breathing temple.''' Mughal rule reached Saurashtra with Akbar's conquest of Gujarat (1573), and the empire's first word at Prabhas was, remarkably, permission: '''Akbar allowed the worship of the linga and appointed officers (desais) to administer the temple''' — for some eight decades Somanatha functioned openly under Mughal authority.<ref name="thapar"/> The policy reversed under '''Aurangzeb''', and the reversal itself tells the story: a farman of 20 November 1665 ordered the temple destroyed; worship returned, so the order had to be given again — in 1701 the viceroy Prince Mohammad Azam was instructed to destroy it "beyond possibility of repair", and in 1706, months before the emperor's death, a final order converted the building into a mosque, as the court chronicle ''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' records.<ref name="mirat">''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' of Ali Muhammad Khan on Aurangzeb's farmans of 1665, 1701 and 1706; Thapar, ''Somanatha'' (2004), on Akbar's grant of worship and temple administration.</ref> That one emperor had to order the same destruction three times in forty years is itself the measure of Prabhas: '''the temple kept breathing between the farmans.''' Two Mughal policies a century apart — Akbar's permission, Aurangzeb's prohibition — frame the era better than any single verdict on the dynasty could: empires changed their minds; the worshippers never did. It was Aurangzeb's converted shell that the colonial photographers would later find. Yet the chain of rebuilders never broke: in '''1783''' the Maratha confederacy itself answered. District records name the rebuilding a joint act — '''Ahilyabai Holkar''' of Indore with the '''Peshwa''' of Pune, the '''Bhonsle Chhatrapatis of Nagpur and Kolhapur — the house of Shivaji''' — and '''Shinde of Gwalior'''. Ahilyabai's temple rose beside the ruin with its sanctum set underground, so that worship at Prabhas would never again depend on the fate of a roof — the quiet rebuild between the empires, and worship continued in it until 1951.<ref name="gazetteer"/> Shivaji himself never campaigned in Saurashtra and left no record at Somnath; a century after him, the houses of his line signed the rebuilding in his stead.

	'''How many times?''' Popular accounts repeat "sixteen" or "seventeen" destructions; the legendary numbers are part of Somnath's story but not of its ledger. The attested chain of rebuildings reads: the 10th-century stone temple · Bhima I's temple (11th century) · Kumarapala's temple (1169 — the building the colonial photographs show in ruin) · the Chudasama restoration (1308–c. 1351) · Ahilyabai's adjacent temple (1783) · the Republic's temple (1951). '''Six rebuildings stand on the documentary record''' — and at Prabhas the count of destructions has always mattered less than the certainty of return.<ref name="thapar"/><ref name="dhaky"/>		'''How many times?''' Popular accounts repeat "sixteen" or "seventeen" destructions; the legendary numbers are part of Somnath's story but not of its ledger. The attested chain of rebuildings reads: the 10th-century stone temple · Bhima I's temple (11th century) · Kumarapala's temple (1169 — the building the colonial photographs show in ruin) · the Chudasama restoration (1308–c. 1351) · Ahilyabai's adjacent temple (1783) · the Republic's temple (1951). '''Six rebuildings stand on the documentary record''' — and at Prabhas the count of destructions has always mattered less than the certainty of return.<ref name="thapar"/><ref name="dhaky"/>
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	For a thousand years, the keeping of that promise passed from hand to hand. Kings kept it while there were kings — Bhima rebuilding upon the embers of 1026, Kumarapala raising stone "studded with jewels," Mahipala and Khengara of the Chudasamas restoring what Delhi's armies had broken. A queen kept it when the thrones were gone — Ahilyabai of Indore, who set her sanctum underground, beyond the reach of any future fire. And when there was neither king nor queen, the people kept it: pilgrims who walked to a broken shore as though it were whole, priests who kept the lamp in the ruin, fairs that gathered at Kartik Purnima around shattered stone, families across the subcontinent who gave the god's name to their sons. Each rebuilding was an act of courage; the centuries between them were acts of tenacity; and beneath both lay the quietest power of all — a memory that simply would not fade.<ref name="munshi"/>		For a thousand years, the keeping of that promise passed from hand to hand. Kings kept it while there were kings — Bhima rebuilding upon the embers of 1026, Kumarapala raising stone "studded with jewels," Mahipala and Khengara of the Chudasamas restoring what Delhi's armies had broken. A queen kept it when the thrones were gone — Ahilyabai of Indore, who set her sanctum underground, beyond the reach of any future fire. And when there was neither king nor queen, the people kept it: pilgrims who walked to a broken shore as though it were whole, priests who kept the lamp in the ruin, fairs that gathered at Kartik Purnima around shattered stone, families across the subcontinent who gave the god's name to their sons. Each rebuilding was an act of courage; the centuries between them were acts of tenacity; and beneath both lay the quietest power of all — a memory that simply would not fade.<ref name="munshi"/>

	So it was that within weeks of India's freedom, with the accession of Junagadh barely settled, Sardar Patel stood on the shore of Prabhas and vowed the temple would rise — and Gandhi, approving, counselled that the people themselves, not the state's treasury, should build it, as the people had always built it. The hereditary hands of the Sompura master-builders cut the stone as their forefathers had; and in May 1951, installing the jyotirlinga, President Rajendra Prasad gave the moment its words — words which All India Radio, in the climate of the day, declined even to broadcast:<ref name="prasad1951">Speech of President Rajendra Prasad at Somnath, 11 May 1951; All India Radio withheld the broadcast — see ThePrint, "Rajendra Prasad's Somnath temple inauguration speech that AIR 'blacked out' in 1951" (2023).</ref>		So it was that within weeks of India's freedom, with the accession of Junagadh barely settled, Sardar Patel stood on the shore of Prabhas and vowed the temple would rise — and Gandhi, approving, counselled that the people themselves, not the state's treasury, should build it, as the people had always built it. The first donation — one lakh rupees — came from the '''Jam Saheb of Nawanagar''', foremost of the princes on the new Somnath trust, and ₹51,000 followed from Samaldas Gandhi's Junagadh administration: the princes of Saurashtra paying forward what the kings of Prabhas had begun.<ref name="week">The Week, "Ram mandir's 'precursor': How a Nehru govt minister helped rebuild Somnath temple" (2020); Shree Somnath Trust deed, 15 March 1950.</ref> The hereditary hands of the Sompura master-builders cut the stone as their forefathers had; and in May 1951, installing the jyotirlinga, President Rajendra Prasad gave the moment its words — words which All India Radio, in the climate of the day, declined even to broadcast:<ref name="prasad1951">Speech of President Rajendra Prasad at Somnath, 11 May 1951; All India Radio withheld the broadcast — see ThePrint, "Rajendra Prasad's Somnath temple inauguration speech that AIR 'blacked out' in 1951" (2023).</ref>

	<blockquote>"By rising from its ashes again, this temple of Somnath proclaims to the world that '''no man and no power in the world can destroy that for which people have boundless faith and love in their hearts.'''"		<blockquote>"By rising from its ashes again, this temple of Somnath proclaims to the world that '''no man and no power in the world can destroy that for which people have boundless faith and love in their hearts.'''"

Bbnanawati: New section: Two memories the world kept — the tide that worships; Somnath in Persian poetry

2026-06-11T16:25:01Z

New section: Two memories the world kept — the tide that worships; Somnath in Persian poetry

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:55, 11 June 2026
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	== Historiography — the many voices ==		== Historiography — the many voices ==
	Somnath is among the most debated sites in Indian historical writing. Turko-Persian chronicles magnified the 1026 raid as a triumph of iconoclasm; colonial historians fixed it as the emblem of "Muslim destruction of Hindu India"; nationalist writing made the rebuilding a metaphor of civilizational resilience<ref name="munshi"/>; modern scholarship — notably Romila Thapar's ''Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History''<ref name="thapar"/> and the architectural study of Dhaky and Shastri<ref name="dhaky">Dhaky, M. A. & Shastri, H. P. ''The Riddle of the Temple of Somanātha''. Varanasi, 1974.</ref> — examines how each age constructed its own Somnath, noting Sanskrit inscriptions from after 1026 in which the raid is barely remembered, and a 13th-century grant at Somnath itself endowing a mosque. Per Indopedia policy, these readings are presented side by side with their evidence: the destructions are documented fact; their meanings have a history of their own.		Somnath is among the most debated sites in Indian historical writing. Turko-Persian chronicles magnified the 1026 raid as a triumph of iconoclasm; colonial historians fixed it as the emblem of "Muslim destruction of Hindu India"; nationalist writing made the rebuilding a metaphor of civilizational resilience<ref name="munshi"/>; modern scholarship — notably Romila Thapar's ''Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History''<ref name="thapar"/> and the architectural study of Dhaky and Shastri<ref name="dhaky">Dhaky, M. A. & Shastri, H. P. ''The Riddle of the Temple of Somanātha''. Varanasi, 1974.</ref> — examines how each age constructed its own Somnath, noting Sanskrit inscriptions from after 1026 in which the raid is barely remembered, and a 13th-century grant at Somnath itself endowing a mosque. Per Indopedia policy, these readings are presented side by side with their evidence: the destructions are documented fact; their meanings have a history of their own.

			== Two memories the world kept — the tide and the poets ==
			'''The tide that worships.''' The deity of Prabhas is the Lord of the Moon — and it is the moon that pulls the tides. Tradition at Somnath, recorded by its medieval visitors, read the ocean's daily rhythm accordingly: twice each day the sea climbs the shore to touch the temple's feet and twice withdraws — the ebb and flow understood as the ocean's own unending act of worship. Al-Biruni, who explained the shrine's very name through the moon, stood at the meeting point of the two ideas: at Somnath, the temple's theology and its oceanography are the same fact. No other great shrine of India carries its god's signature in the movement of the sea itself.<ref name="biruni"/>

			'''The temple in the poets' tongue.''' Somnath's strangest afterlife is in the literature of those who claimed to have destroyed it. For centuries after 1026, the "idol of Somnat" (''but-i-Somnāt'') lived on as a stock image of Persian poetry — in the verses of poets such as Attar and Sa'di it stands for a beauty so overwhelming that the beholder cannot help but worship, and the tale of Mahmud and the idol was retold endlessly as moral parable. The chronicles of the conquerors declared the temple destroyed; the poetry of their grandchildren proved it indestructible — recited, of all things, as an image of irresistible devotion. Memory, like the tide, kept returning.<ref name="thapar"/>

	== Legacy — the shrine India refused to forget ==		== Legacy — the shrine India refused to forget ==

Bbnanawati: Expand: no Mamluk raid noted; Khilji 1299; Mughal era — Akbar permission, Aurangzeb three farmans (Mirat-i-Ahmadi)

2026-06-11T16:22:11Z

Expand: no Mamluk raid noted; Khilji 1299; Mughal era — Akbar permission, Aurangzeb three farmans (Mirat-i-Ahmadi)

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:52, 11 June 2026
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	'''The Vaghela century — builders and hosts.''' The Cintra prashasti from the reign of Sarangadeva (1287) records the Shaiva acharya Tripurantaka raising five shrines at Prabhas, the temple precinct still growing.<ref name="cintra">Cintra prashasti of the reign of Sarangadeva, 1287 CE; ed. G. Bühler, ''Epigraphia Indica'' I.</ref> And the most remarkable stone of all: the '''bilingual Sanskrit–Arabic Veraval inscription of 1264''', in the reign of Arjunadeva, records the temple town granting land to the Hormuz shipmaster '''Nuruddin Firuz''' to build a mosque — which the Sanskrit text calls a ''dharmasthana'', a house of dharma — with the consent of the Pashupata acharyas, the local raja Chhada, and the merchant guilds of Somanatha-pattana.<ref name="veraval">Veraval Sanskrit–Arabic bilingual inscription, V.S. 1320 = 1264 CE, reign of Arjunadeva; ed. D. C. Sircar, ''Epigraphia Indica'' XXXIV; R. Chakravarti, "Nakhuda Nuruddin Firuz at Somanātha: AD 1264".</ref> The lords of the temple were at once its rebuilders and the hosts of an Indian Ocean port open to every faith that traded on it — a fact recorded in their own stone, and almost never in retellings of Somnath.		'''The Vaghela century — builders and hosts.''' The Cintra prashasti from the reign of Sarangadeva (1287) records the Shaiva acharya Tripurantaka raising five shrines at Prabhas, the temple precinct still growing.<ref name="cintra">Cintra prashasti of the reign of Sarangadeva, 1287 CE; ed. G. Bühler, ''Epigraphia Indica'' I.</ref> And the most remarkable stone of all: the '''bilingual Sanskrit–Arabic Veraval inscription of 1264''', in the reign of Arjunadeva, records the temple town granting land to the Hormuz shipmaster '''Nuruddin Firuz''' to build a mosque — which the Sanskrit text calls a ''dharmasthana'', a house of dharma — with the consent of the Pashupata acharyas, the local raja Chhada, and the merchant guilds of Somanatha-pattana.<ref name="veraval">Veraval Sanskrit–Arabic bilingual inscription, V.S. 1320 = 1264 CE, reign of Arjunadeva; ed. D. C. Sircar, ''Epigraphia Indica'' XXXIV; R. Chakravarti, "Nakhuda Nuruddin Firuz at Somanātha: AD 1264".</ref> The lords of the temple were at once its rebuilders and the hosts of an Indian Ocean port open to every faith that traded on it — a fact recorded in their own stone, and almost never in retellings of Somnath.

	'''The Chudasama restorations and the ~~later~~ blows.''' Ulugh Khan'~~s campaign for~~ Alauddin Khilji ~~struck the temple in 1299~~; the '''Chudasama''' king '''Mahipala I''' repaired it in 1308, and his son '''Khengara''' installed the linga anew ~~in the decades that followed~~ (c. 1331–1351).<ref name="gazetteer">Gir Somnath district historical records (Government of Gujarat); Cousens 1931.</ref> Zafar Khan ~~struck~~ in 1395, Mahmud Begada in the ~~15th~~ century; the ~~building passed into use as~~ a ~~mosque~~; ~~Aurangzeb ordered its desecration~~ in ~~1665~~ and ~~again~~ in 1706.<ref name="~~cousens~~"/> Yet the chain of rebuilders never broke: in '''1783 Ahilyabai Holkar''' of Indore raised the adjacent Somnath temple with its sanctum set underground — so that worship at Prabhas would never again depend on the fate of a roof. Hers is the quiet rebuild between the empires, and worship continued in it until 1951.<ref name="gazetteer"/>		'''The Chudasama restorations and the Sultanate blows.''' For nearly three centuries of the Delhi Sultanate the temple stood beyond Delhi's reach — no raid on Somnath is recorded under the Mamluk ("Slave") sultans. Delhi's first blow came in 1299, when '''Ulugh Khan''', general of '''Alauddin Khilji''', overran Gujarat; the '''Chudasama''' king '''Mahipala I''' repaired the temple in 1308, and his son '''Khengara''' installed the linga anew (c. 1331–1351).<ref name="gazetteer">Gir Somnath district historical records (Government of Gujarat); Cousens 1931.</ref> The independent sultans of Gujarat struck next — Zafar Khan (later Muzaffar Shah) in 1395, Mahmud Begada in the fifteenth century — and after each blow, worship seeped back.<ref name="cousens"/>

			'''Under the Mughals — permission, prohibition, and the breathing temple.''' Mughal rule reached Saurashtra with Akbar's conquest of Gujarat (1573), and the empire's first word at Prabhas was, remarkably, permission: '''Akbar allowed the worship of the linga and appointed officers (desais) to administer the temple''' — for some eight decades Somanatha functioned openly under Mughal authority.<ref name="thapar"/> The policy reversed under '''Aurangzeb''', and the reversal itself tells the story: a farman of 20 November 1665 ordered the temple destroyed; worship returned, so the order had to be given again — in 1701 the viceroy Prince Mohammad Azam was instructed to destroy it "beyond possibility of repair", and in 1706, months before the emperor's death, a final order converted the building into a mosque, as the court chronicle ''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' records.<ref name="mirat">''Mirat-i-Ahmadi'' of Ali Muhammad Khan on Aurangzeb's farmans of 1665, 1701 and 1706; Thapar, ''Somanatha'' (2004), on Akbar's grant of worship and temple administration.</ref> That one emperor had to order the same destruction three times in forty years is itself the measure of Prabhas: '''the temple kept breathing between the farmans.''' Two Mughal policies a century apart — Akbar's permission, Aurangzeb's prohibition — frame the era better than any single verdict on the dynasty could: empires changed their minds; the worshippers never did. It was Aurangzeb's converted shell that the colonial photographers would later find. Yet the chain of rebuilders never broke: in '''1783 Ahilyabai Holkar''' of Indore raised the adjacent Somnath temple with its sanctum set underground — so that worship at Prabhas would never again depend on the fate of a roof. Hers is the quiet rebuild between the empires, and worship continued in it until 1951.<ref name="gazetteer"/>

	'''How many times?''' Popular accounts repeat "sixteen" or "seventeen" destructions; the legendary numbers are part of Somnath's story but not of its ledger. The attested chain of rebuildings reads: the 10th-century stone temple · Bhima I's temple (11th century) · Kumarapala's temple (1169 — the building the colonial photographs show in ruin) · the Chudasama restoration (1308–c. 1351) · Ahilyabai's adjacent temple (1783) · the Republic's temple (1951). '''Six rebuildings stand on the documentary record''' — and at Prabhas the count of destructions has always mattered less than the certainty of return.<ref name="thapar"/><ref name="dhaky"/>		'''How many times?''' Popular accounts repeat "sixteen" or "seventeen" destructions; the legendary numbers are part of Somnath's story but not of its ledger. The attested chain of rebuildings reads: the 10th-century stone temple · Bhima I's temple (11th century) · Kumarapala's temple (1169 — the building the colonial photographs show in ruin) · the Chudasama restoration (1308–c. 1351) · Ahilyabai's adjacent temple (1783) · the Republic's temple (1951). '''Six rebuildings stand on the documentary record''' — and at Prabhas the count of destructions has always mattered less than the certainty of return.<ref name="thapar"/><ref name="dhaky"/>

Bbnanawati: Fix heading break before Bana Stambha section

2026-06-11T16:09:13Z

Fix heading break before Bana Stambha section

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:39, 11 June 2026
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	== Architecture ==		== Architecture ==
	The present temple follows the Maru-Gurjara (Solanki) tradition of its predecessor: garbhagriha with pradakshina, gudhamandapa, sabhamandapa and nritya mandapa on an east-facing axis, crowned by a shikhara, kalasha and flag-mast. === The arrow pillar — Bāṇa Stambha, explained simply ===		The present temple follows the Maru-Gurjara (Solanki) tradition of its predecessor: garbhagriha with pradakshina, gudhamandapa, sabhamandapa and nritya mandapa on an east-facing axis, crowned by a shikhara, kalasha and flag-mast.

			=== The arrow pillar — Bāṇa Stambha, explained simply ===
	On the temple's sea-wall stands a pillar topped by an arrow — the '''Bāṇa Stambha'''. The arrow points at the open sea, and the Sanskrit line on it makes a startling claim: ''from here, all the way to the South Pole, there is nothing but water.''		On the temple's sea-wall stands a pillar topped by an arrow — the '''Bāṇa Stambha'''. The arrow points at the open sea, and the Sanskrit line on it makes a startling claim: ''from here, all the way to the South Pole, there is nothing but water.''

Bbnanawati: Audio: official Prasar Bharati Archives recording (28 Sept 1959) + alternates

2026-06-11T15:36:17Z

Audio: official Prasar Bharati Archives recording (28 Sept 1959) + alternates

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:06, 11 June 2026
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	'''External references:''' Archaeological Survey of India · Shree Somnath Trust (somnath.org) · Boston Public Library / Digital Commonwealth · NYPL Digital Collections · British Library, Oriental and India Office Collection		'''External references:''' Archaeological Survey of India · Shree Somnath Trust (somnath.org) · Boston Public Library / Digital Commonwealth · NYPL Digital Collections · British Library, Oriental and India Office Collection

	'''Audio & film:''' No recording of the 11 May 1951 ceremony is publicly known — All India Radio declined to broadcast the President's speech, and Sardar Patel had passed away in December 1950, before the temple he vowed to rebuild was consecrated. A later ~~AIR~~ recording of '''President Rajendra Prasad speaking at Somnath in 1959''' ~~survives~~ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQAgF9B9MI (~~listen~~)] ~~— as~~ a Government of India work its Indian copyright term (60 years) has expired~~, and~~ Indopedia ~~plans to~~ host a clean public-domain copy with an in-page player. The Films Division (NFDC) newsreel archives are being approached for 1951 footage.		'''Audio & film:''' No recording of the 11 May 1951 ceremony is publicly known — All India Radio declined to broadcast the President's speech, and Sardar Patel had passed away in December 1950, before the temple he vowed to rebuild was consecrated. A later All India Radio recording survives and is on the '''official Prasar Bharati Archives''' channel: '''President Rajendra Prasad speaking at Somnath on 28 September 1959''' — [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQAgF9B9MI listen (2 min 27 s)]; a longer unofficial copy of the same address also circulates [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3vpC8WcusE (here)]. As a Government of India work its Indian copyright term (60 years) has expired; Indopedia will host a clean public-domain copy with an in-page player once audio playback is enabled. For the Nehru–Prasad disagreement itself, BBC News Hindi has a documentary segment [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=533mvslhYzQ (watch)]. The Films Division (NFDC) newsreel archives are being approached for 1951 footage.

	[[Category:Jyotirlingas]]		[[Category:Jyotirlingas]]

Bbnanawati: Audio & film note: 1951 recording status, 1959 Prasad AIR recording (PD-India), archives plan

2026-06-11T15:28:35Z

Audio & film note: 1951 recording status, 1959 Prasad AIR recording (PD-India), archives plan

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:58, 11 June 2026
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	'''External references:''' Archaeological Survey of India · Shree Somnath Trust (somnath.org) · Boston Public Library / Digital Commonwealth · NYPL Digital Collections · British Library, Oriental and India Office Collection		'''External references:''' Archaeological Survey of India · Shree Somnath Trust (somnath.org) · Boston Public Library / Digital Commonwealth · NYPL Digital Collections · British Library, Oriental and India Office Collection

			'''Audio & film:''' No recording of the 11 May 1951 ceremony is publicly known — All India Radio declined to broadcast the President's speech, and Sardar Patel had passed away in December 1950, before the temple he vowed to rebuild was consecrated. A later AIR recording of '''President Rajendra Prasad speaking at Somnath in 1959''' survives [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQAgF9B9MI (listen)] — as a Government of India work its Indian copyright term (60 years) has expired, and Indopedia plans to host a clean public-domain copy with an in-page player. The Films Division (NFDC) newsreel archives are being approached for 1951 footage.

	[[Category:Jyotirlingas]]		[[Category:Jyotirlingas]]