Somnath temple
Somnath Temple is a Hindu temple, located in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, in Gujarat, India. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites the Tirtha Kshetra for Hindus and is the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. It is unclear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE. Various texts, including the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana, mention a tirtha at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the later temple was, but archaeology has not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there.
The temple was reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers, notably starting with an attack by Mahmud Ghazni in January 1026.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, historians and archaeologists of the colonial era actively studied the Somnath temple because its ruins showed a historic Hindu temple that was turning into an Islamic mosque. After India's independence, those ruins were demolished, and the present Somnath temple was reconstructed in the Māru-Gurjara style of Hindu temple architecture. The contemporary Somnath temple's reconstruction was started under the orders of the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, Vallabhbhai Patel. The reconstruction was completed in May 1951.
Location
The Somnath temple is located along the coastline in Veraval, Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It is about southwest of Ahmedabad, south of Junagadh – another major archaeological and pilgrimage site in Gujarat. It is about southeast of the Veraval Junction railway station, about east of Veraval port, about south of Somnath Terminus railway station, about south of the Keshod Airport and about west of the Diu airport.The Somnath temple is located eastward to the Veraval port, one of the three ancient trading port in Gujarat from where Indian merchants departed to trade goods. The 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni states that Somnath has become so famous because "it was the harbor for seafaring people and a station for those who went to and fro between Sufala in the country of Zanj and China". Combined with its repute as an eminent pilgrimage site, its location was well known to the kingdoms within the Indian subcontinent. Literature and epigraphical evidence suggest that the medieval-era Veraval port was also actively trading with the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This brought wealth and fame to the city as well as to the temple.
The site of Somnath was occupied during the Indus Valley Civilisation, 2000–1200 BCE. It was one of very few sites in the Junagadh district to be so occupied. After abandonment in 1200 BCE, it was reoccupied in 400 BCE and continued into the historical period. Prabhas is also close to the other sites similarly occupied: Junagadh, Dwarka, Padri and Bharuch.
Nomenclature and significance
Somnath means "Lord of the Soma" or "moon". The site is also called Prabhasa. Somnath temple has been a jyotirlinga site for the Hindus, and a holy place of pilgrimage ''. It is one of five most revered sites on the seacoast of India, along with the nearby Dwaraka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha, Rameswaram and Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu.Scriptural mentions
Many Hindu texts provide a list of the most sacred Shiva pilgrimage sites, along with a guide for visiting the site. The best known were the Mahatmya genre of texts. Of these, Somnatha temple tops the list of jyotirlingas in the Jnanasamhita – chapter 13 of the Shiva Purana, and the oldest known text with a list of jyotirlingas. Other texts include the Varanasi Mahatmya, the Shatarudra Samhita and the Kothirudra Samhita. All either directly mention the Somnath temple as the number one of twelve sites, or call the top temple as "Somesvara" in Saurashtra – a synonymous term for this site in these texts. The exact date of these texts is unknown, but based on references they make to other texts and ancient poets or scholars, these have been generally dated between the 10th and 12th century, with some dating it much earlier and others a bit later.The Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, but the "Prabhasa Tirtha" is mentioned as a tirtha. For example, the Mahabharata in Chapters 109, 118 and 119 of the Book Three, and Sections 10.45 and 10.78 of the Bhagavata Purana state Prabhasa to be a tirtha on the coastline of Saurashtra.
Alf Hiltebeitel – a Sanskrit scholar known for his translations and studies on Indic texts including the Mahabharata, states that the appropriate context for the legends and mythologies in the Mahabharata are the Vedic mythologies which it borrowed, integrated and re-adapted for its times and its audience. The Brahmana layer of the Vedic literature already mention tirtha related to the Saraswati river. However, given the river was nowhere to be seen when the Mahabharata was compiled and finalized, the Saraswati legend was modified. It vanishes into an underground river, then emerges as an underground river at holy sites for sangam already popular with the Hindus. The Mahabharata then integrates the Saraswati legend of the Vedic lore with the Prabhasa tirtha, states Hiltebeitel. The critical editions of the Mahabharata, in several chapters and books mentions that this "Prabhasa" is at a coastline near Dvaraka. It is described as a sacred site where Arjuna and Balarama go on tirtha, a site where Lord Krishna chooses to go and spends his final days, then dies.
Catherine Ludvik – a Religious Studies and Sanskrit scholar, concurs with Hiltebeitel. She states that the Mahabharata mythologies borrow from the Vedic texts but modify them from Brahmin-centered "sacrificial rituals" to tirtha rituals that are available to everyone – the intended audience of the great epic. More specifically, she states that the sacrificial sessions along the Saraswati river found in sections such as of Pancavimsa Brahmana were modified to tirtha sites in the context of the Saraswati river in sections of Vana Parva and Shalya Parva. Thus the mythology of Prabhasa in the Mahabharata, which it states to be "by the sea, near Dwaraka". This signifies an expanded context of pilgrimage as a "Vedic ritual equivalent", integrating Prabhasa that must have been already important as a tirtha site when the Vana Parva and Shalya Parva compilation was complete.
The 5th century poem Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa mentions Somanatha-Prabhasa as a tirtha along with Prayaga, Pushkara, Gokarna. Bathing in one of these tirthas is meant to release one from the cycle of births and deaths.
There is no archaeological evidence that a temple existed at the site in ancient times.
History
The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam. Soma, the Moon god, is believed to have lost his lustre due to a curse, and he bathed in the Sarasvati River at this site to regain it. The result is said to be the waxing and waning of the moon. The name of the town, Prabhasa, meaning lustre, as well as the alternative name Someshvara, arise from this tradition.The name Someshvara begins to appear in records from the 9th century. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II recorded that he had visited various tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara. The Chaulukya king Mularaja is believed to have built the first temple dedicated to Soma at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated an earlier, smaller temple.
File:Map_of_the_Ghaznavid_Empire.png|thumb|300px|Mahmud of Ghazni, the Turkic Muslim ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire, raided India as far as Somnath, Mathura and Kannauj in Gurjara-Pratihara territory.
Mahmud of Ghazni’s Raid (1026 CE)
In 1026 CE, during the reign of Bhima I, the Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided the Somnath temple after crossing the Thar desert, desecrated its jyotirlinga, and plundered 20 million dinars, including the temple's and city's gold in caravans to a Friday mosque in Ghazni. The condition of Somnath temple in 1026 CE after Ghazni's raid is unclear because a 1038 inscription of Kadamba king of Goa is "puzzlingly silent" about Ghazni's raid or temple's condition. This inscription, states Thapar, could suggest that instead of destruction it may have been a desecration because the temple seems to have been repaired quickly within twelve years and was an active pilgrimage site by 1038.The raid of 1026 by Mahmud is confirmed by the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni, who occasionally accompanied Mahmud's troops between 1017 and 1030 CE and lived intermittently in the northwest Indian subcontinent region. The invasion of Somnath site in 1026 CE is also confirmed by other Islamic historians such as Gardizi, Ibn Zafir and Ibn al-Athir. However, two Persian sources – one by adh-Dhahabi and other by al-Yafi'i – state it as 1027 CE, which is likely incorrect and late by a year, according to Khan – a scholar known for his studies on Al-Biruni and other Persian historians. According to Al-Biruni:
Al-Biruni states that Mahmud destroyed the Somnath temple. He states Mahmud's motives as, "raids undertaken with a view to plunder and to satisfy the righteous iconoclasm of a true Muslim... returned to Ghazna laden with costly spoils from the Hindu temples." Al-Biruni obliquely criticizes these raids for "ruining the prosperity" of India, creating antagonism among the Hindus for "all foreigners", and triggering an exodus of scholars of Hindu sciences far away from regions "conquered by us". Mahmud launched many plunder campaigns into India, including one that included the sack of Somnath temple.
According to Jamal Malik – a South Asian history and Islamic Studies scholar, "the destruction of Somnath temple, a well known place of pilgrimage in Gujarat in 1026, played a major role in creating Mahmud as an "icon of Islam", the sack of this temple became "a crucial topic in Persian stories of Islamic iconoclasm". Many Muslim historians and scholars in and after the 11th century included the destruction of Somnath as a righteous exemplary deed in their publications. It inspired the Persian side with a cultural memory of Somnath's destruction through "epics of conquest", while to the Hindu side, Somnath inspired tales of recovery, rebuilding and "epics of resistance". These tales and chronicles in Persia elevated Mahmud as "the exemplary hero and Islamic warrior for the Muslims", states Malik, while in India Mahmud emerged as the exemplary "arch-enemy".
Powerful legends with intricate detail developed in the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmud's raid. According to historian Cynthia Talbot, a later tradition states that "50,000 devotees lost their lives in trying to stop Mahmud" during his sack of Somnath temple. According to Thapar, the "50,000 killed" is a boastful claim that is "constantly reiterated" in Muslim texts, and becomes a "formulaic" figure of deaths to help highlight "Mahmud’s legitimacy in the eyes of established Islam".