Editing Somnath temple (section)

===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>