{"id":353342,"date":"2026-01-06T14:20:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=353342"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:50:16","slug":"somnath-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/somnath-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"Somnath Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Somnath temple\u2019s survival over the past thousand years reflects the country\u2019s indomitable civilisational spirit.<\/p>\n<h2>About Somnath Temple<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_353343\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-353343\" style=\"width: 324px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-353343\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Temple-Diary.jpg?resize=324%2C243&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Somnath Temple\" width=\"324\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Temple-Diary.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Temple-Diary.jpg?resize=768%2C577&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Source-Temple-Diary.jpg?w=935&amp;ssl=1 935w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-353343\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Temple Diary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong> The Somnath temple is located along the <strong>coastline in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Saurashtra region of Gujarat. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Meaning:<\/strong> Somnath means &#8220;<strong>Lord of the Soma&#8221; or &#8220;moon&#8221;.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The site is also called <strong>Prabhasa (&#8220;place of splendor&#8221;).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Significance:<\/strong> Somnath temple has been a <strong>jyotirlinga site (out of 12) for the Hindus<\/strong>, and a holy <strong>place of pilgrimage (tirtha).<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is <strong>one of five most revered sites<\/strong> on the <strong>seacoast of India<\/strong>, along with the nearby <strong>Dwaraka<\/strong> in Gujarat, <strong>Puri<\/strong> in Odisha, <strong>Rameswaram<\/strong> and <strong>Chidambaram<\/strong> in Tamil Nadu.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>History<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The site of Somnath has been a <strong>pilgrimage site from ancient times<\/strong> on account of being a <strong>Triveni Sangam<\/strong>: the confluence of <strong>three rivers namely Kapila, Hiran and Saraswati. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II<\/strong> recorded that he has <strong>visited tirthas in Saurashtra<\/strong>, including <strong>Someshvara<\/strong>, an alternative name for the temple.<\/li>\n<li>According to an <strong>inscription written in Sanskrit<\/strong> on one of the <strong>towers<\/strong> in temple campus, <strong>one can travel to the south pole unobstructed<\/strong> by following the straight path from the tower in the south direction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islamic invasions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>1026<\/strong>, during the <strong>reign of Bhima I,<\/strong> the <strong>Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni<\/strong> raided and <strong>plundered the Somnath temple<\/strong>, <strong>breaking its jyotirlinga<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>He took away a <strong>loot of 20 million dinars<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Kumarapala (r. 1143\u201372) rebuilt<\/strong> the Somnath temple in \u201c<strong>excellent stone and studded it with jewels,\u201d<\/strong> according to an inscription in <strong>1169<\/strong>. He <strong>replaced a decaying wooden temple.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>During its <strong>1299 invasion of Gujarat, Alauddin Khalji\u2019s army<\/strong>, led by <strong>Ulugh Khan<\/strong>, <strong>defeated the Vaghela king Karna<\/strong>, and <strong>sacked the Somnath temple<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The temple was <strong>rebuilt by Mahipala I<\/strong>, the <strong>Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308<\/strong> and the <strong>lingam was installed<\/strong> by his son <strong>Khengara<\/strong> sometime between <strong>1331 and 1351.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>In <strong>1395<\/strong>, the temple was <strong>destroyed for the third time by Zafar Khan<\/strong>, the last <strong>governor of Gujarat<\/strong> under the Delhi Sultanate and later <strong>founder of Gujarat Sultanate.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reconstruction<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Iron Man of India and Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel<\/strong> came to Junagadh on <strong>12 November 1947<\/strong> at which time <strong>he ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Accordingly, The <strong>Somnath Trust was established<\/strong> to <strong>collect funds<\/strong> and <strong>oversee<\/strong> the construction of the temple.<\/li>\n<li>The new structure was <strong>built by the traditional Somapuri builders of temples in Gujarat<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Architecture:<\/strong> The present temple is a <strong>M\u0101ru-Gurjara architecture<\/strong> (also called <strong>Chaulukya or Solanki style<\/strong>) temple.\n<ul>\n<li>It has a &#8220;<strong>Kailash Mahameru Prasad<\/strong>&#8221; form.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>On <strong>11 May 1951<\/strong>, <strong> Rajendra Prasad, the President of India<\/strong> performed the <strong>installation<\/strong> ceremony for the temple.<\/li>\n<li>Currently, the <strong>chairman of the trust is the Prime Minister of India<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Somnath temple\u2019s survival over the past thousand years reflects the country\u2019s indomitable civilisational spirit. About Somnath Temple Location: The Somnath temple is located along the coastline in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Meaning: Somnath means &#8220;Lord of the Soma&#8221; or &#8220;moon&#8221;. The site is&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/somnath-temple\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Somnath Temple<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,11212,12039,11211],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-353342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-history-and-art-culture-in-news","category-knolls","category-places-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}