01Soma’s tirtha at Prabhas
The Shiva Purana tells how Chandra, the moon, was cursed by Daksha to waste away for favouring Rohini among his twenty-seven wives. At Prabhas he worshipped Mahadev, and Shiva eased the curse: the moon would wane and wax by turns. Chandra’s other name is Soma, and the linga he worshipped is Somnath, the Lord of Soma. The Mahabharata names Prabhas as a great tirtha, and it is here, at Bhalka and Dehotsarga a short walk from the temple, that the Puranas place Shri Krishna’s departure from the world.
02Ghazni, 1026
In January 1026 Mahmud of Ghazni crossed the desert from Multan, took the town, killed the defenders who held the temple and broke the linga. Al-Biruni, who served at Mahmud’s court, records that pieces of it were taken to Ghazni and set into the steps of the great mosque, to be trodden underfoot. Ibn al-Athir puts the dead at more than fifty thousand. Within a few decades the temple stood again. In 1169 the Chaulukya king Kumarapala rebuilt it in stone, a work recorded in the Prabhas Patan inscription of his Shaiva guru Bhava Brihaspati.
03Six more falls
In 1299 Alauddin Khalji’s generals Ulugh Khan and Nusrat Khan sacked Gujarat, and Amir Khusrau boasts in the Khazain-ul-Futuh that the idol of Somnath was carried to Delhi. The Chudasama king Mahipala of Junagadh rebuilt the temple, and his son Khengara installed a new linga. Zafar Khan, the first Sultan of Gujarat, attacked it in 1394, and Mahmud Begada desecrated it again in 1469. Worship always returned. Aurangzeb ordered the temple destroyed in 1665, and in 1706, hearing that the Hindus had resumed worship, ordered that it be razed so thoroughly that nothing remained. The Mirat-i-Ahmadi keeps the order.
04Ahilyabai, Patel and 1951
In 1783 Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore built a new Somnath temple beside the ruins, with the linga set in a sanctum below ground level. Worship continues there today. On 13 November 1947, standing in the ruins after Junagadh joined India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel resolved that the great temple would rise again. K. M. Munshi carried the work after Patel’s death. On 11 May 1951 President Rajendra Prasad performed the pran pratishtha in the new temple designed by Prabhashankar Sompura in the Chaulukya style. The arrow-pillar (Baan Stambh) on the sea wall says there is no land between this shore and the South Pole.
The life of this place
- January 1026Mahmud of Ghazni sacks the temple and breaks the linga.
- 1169Kumarapala Chaulukya rebuilds the temple in stone (Bhava Brihaspati’s inscription).
- 1299Alauddin Khalji’s army under Ulugh Khan sacks Somnath.
- Early 14th centuryChudasama king Mahipala rebuilds; his son Khengara installs a new linga.
- 1394Zafar Khan, governor and later first Sultan of Gujarat, attacks the temple.
- 1469Mahmud Begada desecrates the temple.
- 1665Aurangzeb orders the temple destroyed.
- 1706Aurangzeb orders it razed again after worship resumes.
- 1783Ahilyabai Holkar builds a new Somnath temple beside the ruins.
- 13 November 1947Sardar Patel vows to rebuild the temple.
- 11 May 1951President Rajendra Prasad performs the pran pratishtha of the new temple.
Open from early morning to night with three aartis (7 a.m., noon, 7 p.m.); the sound-and-light show runs after the evening aarti. Bhalka Tirtha and the Triveni Sangam are a short drive away.
