Editing Somnath temple (section)

==History==
The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a ''Triveni Sangam'' (the confluence of three rivers: Kapila, Hiran and Saraswati). [[Soma (deity)|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'' ("the lord of the moon" or "the moon god"), arise from this tradition.{{sfn|Thapar|2005|pp=18, 23–24}}

[[File:Somnath temple ruins (1869).jpg|thumb|Ruined Somnath temple, 1869]]
The name ''Someshvara'' begins to appear starting in the 9th century. The [[Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty|Gurjara-Pratihara]] king [[Nagabhata II]] ({{reign|805|833}}) recorded that he has visited ''tirthas'' in Saurashtra, including ''Someshvara''.<ref>{{harvnb|Dhaky|Shastri|1974|p=32}} cited in {{harvnb|Thapar|2005|p=23}}</ref> The [[Chaulukya]] (Solanki) king [[Mularaja]] possibly built the first temple for ''Soma'' ("moon god") at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated a smaller earlier temple.{{sfn|Thapar|2005|pp=23–24}}{{refn|group=note|The post-1950 excavations of the Somnath site have unearthed the earliest known version of the Somnath temple. The excavations showed the foundations of a 10th-century temple, notable broken parts and details of a major, well decorated version of a temple. [[Madhusudan Dhaky]] believes it to have been the one that was destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni.{{sfn|Dhaky|1998|pp=285–287}}{{sfn|Dhaky|Shastri|1974|pp=1–7}}
B.K. Thapar, the archaeologist who did the excavation, stated that there was definitely a temple structure at Somnath-Patan in the 9th century, but none  before.{{sfn|Rosa Maria Cimino|1977|pp=381-382}}}}

[[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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chandra |first1=Satish |title=Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals-Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526) - Part One |date=2004 |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |isbn=978-81-241-1064-5 |pages=19–20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5eFzeyjBTQC&pg=PA19 |language=en |author-link=Satish Chandra (historian)}}</ref>]]
In 1026, during the reign of [[Bhima I]], the Turkic Muslim ruler [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] raided and plundered the Somnath temple, breaking its ''jyotirlinga''. He took away a booty of 20 million dinars.{{sfn|Yagnik|Sheth|2005|pp=39–40}}{{sfn|Thapar|2005|pp=36–37}} According to Romila Thapar, relying on a 1038 inscription of a [[Kadambas of Goa|Kadamba king of Goa]], the condition of Somnath temple in 1026 after Ghazni's is unclear because the inscription 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.{{sfn|Thapar|2005|p=75}}

The raid of 1026 by  Mahmud is confirmed by the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni, who worked in the court of Mahmud, who accompanied Mahmud's troops between 1017 and 1030 CE on some occasions, and who lived in the northwest Indian subcontinent region – over regular intervals, though not continuously.{{sfn|Khan|1976|pp=90–91 with footnotes}} 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.{{sfn|Khan|1976|pp=95–96 with footnotes}} According to Al-Biruni:

{{Blockquote|The location of the Somnath temple was a little less than three miles west of the mouth of the river Sarasvati. The temple was situated on the coast of the Indian ocean so that at the time of flow the idol was bathed by its water. Thus that moon was perpetually occupied in bathing the idol and serving it."|Translated by M.S. Khan{{sfn|Khan|1976|pp=95–96 with footnotes}}}}

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... [he] 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".<ref>{{cite book |last=Deming |first=D. |title=Science and Technology in World History, Volume 2: Early Christianity, the Rise of Islam and the Middle Ages |publisher=McFarland Publishers |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-5642-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FKNAgAAQBAJ |page=100}}</ref>{{sfn|Khan|1976|pp=105 with footnote 82}} Mahmud launched many plunder campaigns into India, including one that included the sack of Somnath temple.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stuurman |first=S. |title=The Invention of Humanity: Equality and Cultural Difference in World History |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-674-97751-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6l7DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT157 |pages=156–157}}, Quote: "Between 1000 and 1025, the king [Mahmud] mounted no less than seventeen campaigns into India, one of which-the sack of the great Shiva temple of Somnath in Gujarat–yielded a booty of 6500 kilos of gold, not to mention the slaves, arms, richly ornamented robes, precious jewels, tapestries and war elephants brought to Ghazna by Mahmud's victorious army. Al-Biruni accompanied his master [Mahmud] on several of these campaigns."</ref>

[[File:19th century archive photos of Somanatha temple, Veraval Prabhas Patan, Gujarat.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Some of the earliest photos of Somnath temple were taken by Sykes and Nelson in the 19th century. They show Somnath Hindu temple partly converted into an Islamic mosque.<ref name=sykesBL/>]]
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".<ref name="Malikp88"/> 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".<ref name="Malikp88"/> 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".<ref name="Malikp88">{{cite book |last=Malik |first=Jamal |title=Islam in South Asia: A Short History |publisher=Brill Academic |year=2008 |isbn=978-90-04-16859-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FduG_t2sxwMC |pages=88–90}}</ref>

Powerful legends with intricate detail developed in the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmud's raid,.{{sfn|Thapar|2005|loc=Chapter 3}} According to historian Cynthia Talbot, a later tradition states that "50,000<ref>{{Cite web |title=Page:HMElliotHistVol1.djvu/133 - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:HMElliotHistVol1.djvu/133 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=en.wikisource.org |page=98 |language=en |quote=They would go weeping and crying for help into the temple, and then issue forth to battle and fight till all were killed. The number of the slain exceeded 60,000}}</ref> devotees lost their lives in trying to stop Mahmud" during his sack of Somnath temple.{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2007|p=20, Quote: "At that time he sacked the Somanatha temple, built about fifty years earlier by the western Indian king of Gujarat (see Map 2.1). This coastal area was a prosperous and wealthy one, thanks to vigorous maritime trading activities. According to a later tradition, 50,000 devotees lost their lives in trying to stop Mahmud from not only taking the temple's considerable wealth, but also destroying the form of the Hindu god Shiva housed within it. Subsequent kings of the Gujarat region constructed a much grander and elaborate temple in place of the one that Mahmud had destroyed;"}} 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".<ref>{{harvnb|Thapar|2005|p=51}}: "But Mahmud’s legitimacy in the eyes of established Islam also derived from the constant reiteration that he was a Sunni who attacked the heretics, the Ismai‘ilis and Shi‘as in India and Persia. The boast is always that their mosques were closed or destroyed and that invariably 50,000 of them were killed. The figure becomes formulaic, a part of the rhetoric for killing, irrespective of whether they were Hindu kafirs or Muslim heretics.</ref>

After being exhorted by [[Bhava Brihaspati]], a [[Pashupata Shaivism|Pashupata]] ascetic, [[Kumarapala (Chaulukya dynasty)|Kumarapala]] (r.&nbsp;1143–72) rebuilt the Somnath temple in "excellent stone and studded it with jewels," according to an inscription in 1169. He replaced a decaying wooden temple.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=G. Buhler |first=Vajeshaṅkar G. Ozhâ|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23854140 |title=The Somnâthpattan Praśasti of Bhâva Bṛihaspati |journal=Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes |page=2|date=1889 |volume=3 |publisher=Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes 3|jstor=23854140 |language=en}}</ref>{{sfn|Thapar|2005|p=79}}{{sfn|Yagnik|Sheth|2005|p=40}}

During its [[Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Gujarat|1299 invasion of Gujarat]], [[Alauddin Khalji]]'s army, led by [[Ulugh Khan]], defeated the Vaghela king [[Karna (Vaghela dynasty)|Karna]], and sacked the Somnath temple.{{sfn|Yagnik|Sheth|2005|p=47}}<ref name=eaton200080>Eaton (2000), [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/txt_eaton_temples2.pdf Temple desecration in pre-modern India] Frontline, p. 73, item 16 of the Table, Archived by Columbia University</ref> Legends in the later texts ''[[Kanhadade Prabandha]]'' (15th century) and [[Nainsi ri Khyat|''Nainsi ri'' ''Khyat'']] (17th century) state that the [[Chahamanas of Jalore|Jalore]] ruler [[Kanhadadeva]] later recovered the Somnath idol and freed the Hindu prisoners, after an attack on the Delhi army near Jalore.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ashok Kumar Srivastava |title=The Chahamanas of Jalor |publisher=Sahitya Sansar Prakashan |year=1979 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.547206 |oclc=12737199 |pages=39–40 }}</ref> However, other sources state that the idol was taken to Delhi, where it was thrown to be trampled under the feet of Muslims.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kishori Saran Lal |author-link=K. S. Lal |title=History of the Khaljis (1290–1320) |year=1950 |publisher=The Indian Press |location=Allahabad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XXqAQAACAAJ |oclc=685167335 |page=85 }}</ref> These sources include the contemporary and near-contemporary texts including [[Amir Khusrau]]'s ''Khazainul-Futuh'', [[Ziauddin Barani]]'s ''Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi'' and Jinaprabha Suri's ''[[Vividha Tirtha Kalpa|Vividha-tirtha-kalpa]]''. It is possible that the story of Kanhadadeva's rescue of the Somnath idol is a fabrication by the later writers. Alternatively, it is possible that the Khalji army was taking multiple idols to Delhi, and Kanhadadeva's army retrieved one of them.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dasharatha Sharma |title=Early Chauhān Dynasties |publisher=S. Chand / Motilal Banarsidass |year=1959 |isbn=9780842606189 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4gcAAAAMAAJ |oclc=3624414 |page=162 }}</ref>

The temple was rebuilt by [[Mahipala I (Chudasama dynasty)|Mahipala I]], the [[Chudasama dynasty|Chudasama]]  king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the ''lingam'' was installed by his son [[Khengara]] sometime between 1331 and 1351.<ref name=prabhat>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TjAA3y1zmBgC&q=%22Raja+Bhim+Deo%22&pg=PA8 |title= Temples of India |year= 1968 |publisher= Prabhat Prakashan |access-date=1 November 2014}}</ref> As late as the 14th century, [[Gujarati Muslims|Gujarati Muslim]] pilgrims were noted by [[Amir Khusrow]] to stop at that temple to pay their respects before departing for the [[Hajj]] pilgrimage.<ref name="Flood">{{cite book |last1=Flood |first1=Finbarr Barry |title=Objects of Translation: Material Culture and Medieval "Hindu-Muslim" Encounter |date=2009 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691125947 |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLNE_li8C10C&q=Hajj&pg=PA155}}</ref>
In 1395, the temple was destroyed for the third time by [[Muzaffar Shah I|Zafar Khan]], the last governor of Gujarat under the [[Delhi Sultanate]] and later founder of [[Gujarat Sultanate]].{{sfn|Yagnik|Sheth|2005|p=49}} In 1451, it was desecrated by [[Mahmud Begada]], the Sultan of Gujarat.{{sfn|Yagnik|Sheth|2005|p=50}}

By 1665, the temple, one of many, was ordered to be destroyed by [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] emperor [[Aurangzeb]].<ref>Satish Chandra, ''Medieval India: From Sultanat to the Mughals'', (Har-Anand, 2009), 278.</ref>{{sfn|Thapar|2004|pp=68–69}} However, the order appears not to have been carried out at that time. Aurangzeb ordered its destruction and conversion into a mosque again in 1706; this order does seem to have been carried out, though very little effort seems to have been put into the conversion.{{sfn|Thapar|2004|pp=68–69}}

===British Raj===
[[File:Red_Fort,_Ghazni_gate_(photographic_restoration).jpg|thumb|The Gates from the tomb of [[Mahmud of Ghazni]], stored in the Arsenal of Agra Fort.]]
In 1842, [[Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough]] issued his ''Proclamation of the Gates'', in which he ordered the British army in Afghanistan to return via Ghazni and bring back to India the sandalwood gates from the tomb of [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] in Ghazni, Afghanistan. These were believed to have been taken by Mahmud from Somnath. Under Ellenborough's instruction, General [[William Nott]] removed the gates in September 1842. A whole sepoy regiment, the [[6th Jat Light Infantry]], was detailed to carry the gates back to India<ref>{{cite web |title=Battle of Kabul 1842 |url=http://www.britishbattles.com/first-afghan-war/battle-of-kabul-1842/ |website=britishbattles.com |access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> in triumph. However, on arrival, they were found not to be of Gujarati or Indian design, and not of [[Sandalwood]], but of [[Cedrus deodara|Deodar wood]] (native to Ghazni) and therefore not authentic to Somnath.<ref name="br">{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00010000.html |title=Mosque and Tomb of the Emperor Sultan Mahmood of Ghuznee |publisher=British Library |access-date=1 November 2014 |archive-date=11 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111055409/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00010000.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Havell |first1=Ernest Binfield |title=A Handbook to Agra and the Taj |date=2003 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=8120617118 |pages=62–63 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2HPqvBu-aIC&q=somnath+gate+sandalwood+deodar+wood&pg=PA62 |access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> They were placed in the [[arsenal]] store-room of the [[Agra Fort]] where they still lie to the present day.<ref name="Marshman1867">{{cite book |author=John Clark Marshman |title=The History of India, from the Earliest Period to the Close of Lord Dalhousie's Administration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyindiafro00marsgoog |year=1867 |publisher=Longmans, Green |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyindiafro00marsgoog/page/n251 230]–231}}</ref><ref name="Smith1878">{{cite book |author=George Smith |title=The Life of John Wilson, D.D. F.R.S.: For Fifty Years Philanthropist and Scholar in the East |url=https://archive.org/details/lifejohnwilsond00smitgoog |year=1878 |publisher=John Murray |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifejohnwilsond00smitgoog/page/n332 304]–310}}</ref> There was a debate in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons in London]] in 1843 on the question of the gates of the temple and Ellenbourough's role in the affair.<ref>The United Kingdom House of Commons Debate, 9 March 1943, on The Somnath (Prabhas Patan) Proclamation, Junagadh 1948. 584–602, 620, 630–32, 656, 674.</ref><ref name="POG">{{cite web |title=The Gates of Somnath, by Thomas Babington Macaulay, a speech in the House of Commons, March 9, 1843 |website=Columbia University in the City of New York |url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_commons_somnauth_1843.html |access-date=5 August 2016}}</ref> After much crossfire between the British Government and the opposition, all of the facts as we know them were laid out.

In the 19th century novel ''[[The Moonstone]]'' by [[Wilkie Collins]], the diamond of the title is presumed to have been stolen from the temple at Somnath and, according to the historian [[Romila Thapar]], reflects the interest aroused in Britain by the gates. Her 2004 book on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.<ref name=thapar>{{harvnb|Thapar|2004|page=170}}</ref>

===Reconstruction during 1950–1951===
[[File:K M Munshi at Somnath in July 1950.jpg|thumb|K. M. Munshi with archaeologists and engineers of the Government of India, Bombay, and Saurashtra, with the ruins of Somnath Temple in the background, July 1950.|left]]
Before [[Partition of India|independence]], [[Veraval]] was part of the [[Junagadh State]], whose ruler had acceded to Pakistan in 1947. India [[Indian integration of Junagadh|contested the accession]] and annexed the state after holding a referendum. India's Deputy Prime Minister [[Vallabhbhai Patel]] came to Junagadh on 12 November 1947 to direct the stabilization of the state by the Indian Army, at which time he ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple.<ref>Hindustan Times, 15 Nov, 1947</ref>

When Patel, [[K. M. Munshi]] and other leaders of the Congress went to [[Mahatma Gandhi]] with their proposal to reconstruct the Somnath temple, Gandhi blessed the move but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public, and the temple should not be funded by the state.<ref name=marie>Marie Cruz Gabriel, Rediscovery of India, A silence in the city and other stories, Published by Orient Blackswan, 1996, {{ISBN|81-250-0828-4}}, {{ISBN|978-81-250-0828-6}}</ref> Accordingly, The Somnath Trust was established to collect funds and oversee the construction of the temple. Munshi headed the Trust. Being the Civil Supplies minister in the Government of India, Munshi was keen to involve the Government of India in the reconstruction effort, but he was overruled by Nehru.{{sfn|Thapar|2004|pp=197–198}} According to [[Prem Nath Bazaz|Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz]], there had been an agreement between the U.P. Government and the Indian Sugar Syndicate, wherein six annas (that is 40 [[Paisa|paise]]) had to be collected out of the price of every mound of sugar by the Syndicate for the renovation of the Somnath temple.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bazaz |first=Prem Nath |title=The History of Struggle for Freedom in Kashmir: Cultural and Political, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |publisher=PamposhPublications |pages=360}}</ref>

The ruins were pulled down in October 1950. The mosque present at that site was shifted few kilometres away by using construction vehicles.<ref>Mir Jaffar Barkriwala, The Glorious Destruction of Hindoo Temples in Kathiawar and their replacement, Ul Akbari Publications, Bharuch, 1902</ref> The new structure was built by the traditional [[Sompura Salat|Sompura]] builders of temples in Gujarat.{{sfn|Thapar|2004|pp=197–198}} On 11 May 1951, [[Rajendra Prasad]], the President of India performed the installation ceremony for the temple at the invitation of Munshi.<ref name=Veer85/>{{sfn|Thapar|2004|p=199}}

=== 21st century ===
As of 2024, the pilgrim corridor is under planning. As a part of land requirement, the encroachments were removed and land was reclaimed in 2024. Further land acquisitions were also planned.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gujarati |first=TV9 |date=2024-09-30 |title=Somnath Demolition: સોમનાથ કોરિડોરની પરિકલ્પના પૂર્ણ થશે ત્યારે લોકો આ IPS અધિકારીને કરશે યાદ |url=https://tv9gujarati.com/gujarat/girsomnath/people-will-remember-this-ips-officer-when-the-concept-of-somnath-corridor-is-completed-1099428.html |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=TV9 Gujarati |language=gu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=સોમનાથ મંદિર પાછળ મેગા ડિમોલિશનઃ યાત્રાધામ કોરીડોર વિકાસની પૂર્વતૈયારી |url=https://www.gujaratsamachar.com/news/gujarat/mega-demolition-behind-somnath-temple-preparation-for-pilgrimage-corridor-development |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=www.gujaratsamachar.com |language=gu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-10-05 |title=ભાસ્કર ગ્રાઉન્ડ રિપોર્ટ: કોરિડોરને લઇ 500થી વધુ મિલકતો દૂર કરાશે; જમીનોના ભાવ ડબલ થઇ ગયા |url=https://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/local/gujarat/gir-somnath/news/more-than-500-properties-will-be-removed-along-the-corridor-land-prices-doubled-131941933.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231013122358/https://www.divyabhaskar.co.in/local/gujarat/gir-somnath/news/more-than-500-properties-will-be-removed-along-the-corridor-land-prices-doubled-131941933.html |archive-date=2023-10-13 |access-date=2024-12-30 |work=Divya Bhaskar |language=gu}}</ref>