Sunday, April 19, 2015

Somnath Temple Gujrat

Saurash tradeshe vishade.atiramye jyotirmayam chandra kalavatamsam | 
bhaktipradanaya kripa vatIrnam tam somanatham sharanam prapadye ||

“Jay Somanath! Jay Somanath”!

Somnath temple, the first in the twelve jyothirlingas, is located at the Viraval port - Prabhas Pattan in Saurashtra - Gujarat.

Troubled times and Hindu Resilience in rebuilding the great temple of Somnath

This grand temple of Somanath came under the attack of the Muslims several times. In the year 722, Junamad, the Sindh Subedar attacked it for the first time and looted innumerable items from its treasure.

The beautiful statue of Somanath, can be seen from the center because of the miraculous magnetic power. Ghajni Mohammed, destroyed this statue on Friday, the 11th of May 1025 AD. From then onwards, Ghajni Mohammed came to be known as the “Statute Destroyer” (Iconoclast). On that day, he plundered and looted a treasure worth 18 crores.

In 1297 AD, Allauddin Kkhiji sent his Sardar Altaf Khan to Somanath on a mission of destroying and putting down the Somanath Mandir. The Somanath Temple was subjected to series of attacks starting in 1479 AD by Mohammad Begada, Mujaffar Shah, II, in 1503 AD, and finally by Aurangazeb, known to be the most intolerant towards other religions, in 1701 AD, where in, the temple was totally destroyed, plundered and looted in a most horrible way. A large number of people were killed mercilessly and a lot of money stolen

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