The intricately carved honey-coloured Shree Somnath temple located in Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, India is believed to be the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Lord Shiva.
Somnath means “Lord of the Soma”, an epithet of Lord Shiva. The Somnath temple is known as ‘The Shrine Eternal’. It is an important Hindu pilgrimage and tourist spot of India and especially of Gujarat. Reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by several Muslim invaders and rulers, the present mandir was reconstructed in the Chaulukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951.
A description of the temple by Al-Biruni, an Arab traveller, was so glowing that it prompted a visit in 1024 by a most unwelcome tourist – the looter Mahmud of Ghazni from Afghanistan. At that time, the temple was so wealthy that it had 300 musicians, 500 dancing girls and even 300 barbers. Mahmud of Ghazni took the town and temple after a two-day battle in which it’s said 70,000 defenders died. Having stripped the temple of its fabulous wealth, Mahmud destroyed it. So began a pattern of destruction and rebuilding that continued forcenturies. The temple was again razed in 1297, 1394 and finally in 1706 by Aurangzeb, the Mughal ruler. After that, the temple wasn’t rebuilt until 1950.
The reconstruction was started under the orders of the first Home Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel and completed after his death.
The present temple is built in the Chaulukya style of temple architecture or “Kailash Mahameru Prasad” style and reflects the skill of the Sompura Salats, one of Gujarat’s master masons. The temple’s sikhara, or main spire, is 15 metres in height, and it has an 8.2-metre-tall flag pole at the top.
The temple is situated at such a place that there is no land in a straight line between Somnath seashore until Antarctica, such an inscription in Sanskrit is found on the Banastambha (arrow pillar) erected on the sea-protection wall.
The Banastambha mentions that it stands at a point on the Indian landmass, the first point on land in the north to the South Pole at that particular longitude. This remains true, because the whole temple complex (that contains the pillar) has a latitude and longitude of 20.8880° N and 70.4012° E respectively. The only land mass nearest this longitude is the set of Kerguelen Islands, which are uninhabited and form part of the French Southern and Antarctic Islands (spanning 68°38′ E–70°33′ E).
