| Somanatha Temple | |
|---|---|
Somnath Jyotirlinga | |
.jpg) | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Hinduism |
| District | Gir Somnath |
| Deity | Shiva |
| Governing body | Shree Somnath Trust |
| Location | |
| Location | Veraval(Somnath) |
| State | Gujarat |
| Country | India |
  Shown within Gujarat  Somnath temple (India) | |
| Geographic coordinates | 20°53′16.9″N 70°24′5.0″E / 20.888028°N 70.401389°E |
| Architecture | |
| Creator |
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| Completed | 1951 |
| Demolished |
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| Website | |
| somnath | |
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Somnath temple (IAST: somanātha) or Deo Patan, 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.[1] 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.[2][3] The temple is not mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism; while various texts, including the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana, mention a tirtha (pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the temple is presently located, there is no evidence that a temple existed at the site in ancient times.[4][5][6]
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.[7][8][9][10]
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.[11][12][13] 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 after receiving approval for reconstruction from Mahatma Gandhi. The reconstruction was completed in May 1951, after Gandhi's death.[14][15]
- ^ "Somnath darshan". Official website of Somnath Temple. Archived from the original on 28 August 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ^ Dhaky & Shastri 1974.
- ^ Rosa Maria Cimino 1977.
- ^ Thapar 2005, p. 18-19, Chapter 2.
- ^ Mishra & Ray 2016, p. 22: "In the case of Somanatha, one has to rely solely on literary evidence as even though excavations reveal an early settlement at the site, there is no evidence for the early existence of a temple at the site...In the Mahabharata, Prabhas Patan has been described as a sacred tirtha located on the coast of the sea (Vana Parva, Ch. 109)"
- ^ Shastri & Tagare 2004, pp. 1934, 2113.
- ^ Yagnik & Sheth 2005, pp. 39–40, 47–50.
- ^ Thapar 2005, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Catherine B. Asher; Cynthia Talbot (2006). India before Europe. Sterling Publishers. p. 42. ISBN 9781139915618.
- ^ Thapar 2004, pp. 68–69
- ^ Cousens 1931, pp. 15–18.
- ^ The Somanatha temple at Prabhas Patan, D.H. Sykes and Henry Counsens, British Library Archives (2021)
- ^ Shakshi 2012, pp. 304–306 with Figure 4.
- ^ Gopal, Ram (1994). Hindu culture during and after Muslim rule: survival and subsequent challenges. M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. p. 148. ISBN 81-85880-26-3.
- ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (1996). The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 84. ISBN 1-85065-170-1.