The Incredible Spiritual Experience of Immersing oneself in the Devine Blessings of Lord Shiva at Somnath Temple with a Holy dip in Triveni Sangam

On 21/1/25,after our amazing ‘Lion Safari’ of Gir Wildlife Sanctuary, we proceeded to Somnath Temple & Triveni Sangam.On the very first glimpse of Somnath temple,we felt speechles at the spiritual grandeur, peaceful atmosphere,beautiful architecture & significance of it being considered the first Jyotirlinga.We had a very comfortable darshan of the Mahadev temple as all the facilities at the temple were well managed including the evening Mangal Arti even in the peak hours.The temple’s architecture & ambience is impressive including the interior decoration.The scenic coastal location provides amazing view of the ocean from the temple.The old Somnath temple located outside the boundary is must visit for everyone.The Light & Sound show is a delight to watch depicting the original history of the Somnath temple.After visiting the Somnath temple, visited the Triveni Sangam where I took a dip in the the spiritual atmosphere.

Some noteworthy facilities being efficiently managed by the Temple management: 1)Visitors are provided with locker for storing their belongings free of charges. 2)Shoes/slippers counters are provided for the convenience of visitors. 3)Cameras/Mobiles aren’t allowed inside the temple premises!However private photographers providing you photo prints @Rs 100/- as remembrance of visit. 4)Security,Traffic & transportation is being managed very effectively.Also there is free facility of Golf carts for the physically chalanged & elderly upto the Temple entrance. 5)Prasad is available on payment basis in numerous stalls of temple management. 6)Darshan process is very convenient.Separate lines for gents & ladies are available for darshan in the temple.

After the Triveni sangam we proceeded for visiting the Junagadh Fort at 4 pm but could not get entry being already closed for the day.Such bad luck .Never the less,I had prepared some notes on Junagadh & the tourist attractions which I am providing for my valued readers.Happy Reading ,friends !

Somnath temple (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. 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. Various texts, including the Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana, mention a tirtha (pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the later temple was, but archaeology has not found traces of an early temple, though there was a settlement there.

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 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.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.

Location

The Somnath temple is located along the coastline in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It is about 400 kilometres southwest of Ahmedabad, 82 kilometres south of Junagadh – another major archaeological and pilgrimage site in Gujarat. It is about 7 kilometres southeast of the Veraval railway junction, about 130 kilometres  southeast of the Porbandar airport and about 85 kilometres west of the Diu airport. The Somnath temple is located close to the ancient trading port of Veraval, one of three in Gujarat from where Indian merchants departed to trade goods. The 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni states that Somnath has become so famous because “it was the harbor for seafaring people and a station for those who went to and fro between Sufala in the country of Zanj (east Africa) and China”. Combined with its repute as an eminent pilgrimage site, its location was well known to the kingdoms within the Indian subcontinent. Literature and epigraphical evidence suggest that the medieval-era Veraval port was also actively trading with the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This brought wealth and fame to the Veraval area, as well as the temple.

The site of Prabhas Patan was occupied during the Indus Valley Civilisation, 2000–1200 BCE. It was one of very few sites in the Junagadh district to be so occupied. After abandonment in 1200 BCE, it was reoccupied in 400 BCE and continued into the historical period. Prabhas is also close to the other sites similarly occupied: Junagadh, Dwarka, Padri and Bharuch.

History :

The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam (the confluence of three rivers: Kapila, Hiran and Saraswati). Soma, the Moon god, is believed to have lost his lustre due to a curse, and he bathed in the Sarasvati River at this site to regain it. The result is said to be the waxing and waning of the moon. The name of the town, Prabhasa, meaning lustre, as well as the alternative name Someshvara (“the lord of the moon” or “the moon god”), arise from this tradition

The name Someshvara begins to appear starting in the 9th century. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II (r. 805–833) recorded that he has visited tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara.Romila Thapar states that this may not imply the existence of a temple, but rather that it was a pilgrimage site (tirtha). The Chaulukya (Solanki) king Mularaja possibly built the first temple for Soma (“moon god”) at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated a smaller earlier temple.

Mahmud of Ghazni, the Turkic Muslim ruler of the Ghaznavid Empire, raided India as far as Somnath, Mathura and Kannauj in Gurjara-Pratihara territory. In 1026, during the reign of Bhima I, the Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided and plundered the Somnath temple, breaking its jyotirlinga. He took away a booty of 20 million dinars.According to Romila Thapar, relying on a 1038 inscription of a Kadamba king of Goa, the condition of Somnath temple in 1026 after Ghazni’s is unclear because the inscription is “puzzlingly silent” about Ghazni’s raid or temple’s condition. This inscription, states Thapar, could suggest that instead of destruction it may have been a desecration because the temple seems to have been repaired quickly within twelve years and was an active pilgrimage site by 1038

The raid of 1026 by Mahmud is confirmed by the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni, who worked in the court of Mahmud, who accompanied Mahmud’s troops between 1017 and 1030 CE on some occasions, and who lived in the northwest Indian subcontinent region – over regular intervals, though not continuously. The invasion of Somnath site in 1026 CE is also confirmed by other Islamic historians such as Gardizi, Ibn Zafir and Ibn al-Athir. However, two Persian sources – one by adh-Dhahabi and other by al-Yafi’i – state it as 1027 CE, which is likely incorrect and late by a year, according to Khan – a scholar known for his studies on Al-Biruni and other Persian historians.According to Al-Biruni: The location of the Somnath temple was a little less than three miles west of the mouth of the river Sarasvati. The temple was situated on the coast of the Indian ocean so that at the time of flow the idol was bathed by its water. Thus that moon was perpetually occupied in bathing the idol and serving it.”

Somnath means “Lord of the Soma” or “moon”.The site is also called Prabhasa (“place of splendor”). Somnath temple has been a jyotirlinga site for the Hindus, and a holy place of pilgrimage (tirtha). It is one of five most revered sites on the seacoast of India, along with the nearby Dwaraka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha, Rameswaram and Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu.

Scriptural mentions

Many Hindu texts provide a list of the most sacred Shiva pilgrimage sites, along with a guide for visiting the site. The best known were the Mahatmya genre of texts. Of these, Somnatha temple tops the list of jyotirlingas in the Jnanasamhita – chapter 13 of the Shiva Purana, and the oldest known text with a list of jyotirlingas. Other texts include the Varanasi Mahatmya (found in Skanda Purana), the Shatarudra Samhita and the Kothirudra Samhita. All either directly mention the Somnath temple as the number one of twelve sites, or call the top temple as “Somesvara” in Saurashtra – a synonymous term for this site in these texts.The exact date of these texts is unknown, but based on references they make to other texts and ancient poets or scholars, these have been generally dated between the 10th and 12th century, with some dating it much earlier and others a bit later. The Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, but the “Prabhasa-Pattana”

The Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, but the “Prabhasa-Pattana” is mentioned as a tirtha (pilgrimage site) For example, the Mahabharata (c. 400 CE in its mature form)in Chapters 109, 118 and 119 of the Book Three (Vana Parva), and Sections 10.45 and 10.78 of the Bhagavata Purana state Prabhasa to be a tirtha on the coastline of Saurashtra.

Reconstruction during 1950–1951

K. M. Munshi with archaeologists and engineers of the Government of India, Bombay, and Saurashtra, with the ruins of Somnath Temple in the background, July 1950.Before independence, Veraval was part of the Junagadh State, whose ruler had acceded to Pakistan in 1947. India contested the accession and annexed the state after holding a referendum. India’s Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel came to Junagadh on 12 November 1947 to direct the stabilization of the state by the Indian Army, at which time he ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple.

When Patel, K. M. Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Mahatma Gandhi with their proposal to reconstruct the Somnath temple, Gandhi blessed the move but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public, and the temple should not be funded by the state.Accordingly, The Somnath Trust was established to collect funds and oversee the construction of the temple. Munshi headed the Trust. Being the Civil Supplies minister in the Government of India, Munshi was keen to involve the Government of India in the reconstruction effort, but he was overruled by Nehru.According to Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz, there had been an agreement between the U.P. Government and the Indian Sugar Syndicate, wherein six annas (that is 40 paise) had to be collected out of the price of every mound of sugar by the Syndicate for the renovation of the Somnath temple.

The ruins were pulled down in October 1950. The mosque present at that site was shifted few kilometres away by using construction vehicles.The new structure was built by the traditional Sompura builders of temples in Gujarat. On 11 May 1951, Rajendra Prasad, the President of India performed the installation ceremony for the temple at the invitation of Munshi.

Present temple

The present temple is a Māru-Gurjara architecture (also called Chaulukya or Solanki style) temple. It has a “Kailash Mahameru Prasad” form, and reflects the skill of the Sompura Salats, one of Gujarat’s master masons. The architect of the new Somnath temple was Prabhashankarbhai Oghadbhai Sompura, who worked on recovering and integrating the old recoverable parts with the new design in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The new Somnath temple is intricately carved, two level temple with pillared mandapa and 212 relief panels. A wide-angle view – a bit distorted – from the southeast side of the present Somnath temple. Nataraja can be seen on the sukhanasi, along with the two-storey design. The temple’s śikhara, or main spire, is 15 metres in height above the sanctum, and it has an 8.2-metre-tall flag pole at the top.According to Ananda Coomaraswamy – an art and architecture historian, the earlier Somnath temple ruin followed the Solanki-style, which is Nagara architecture inspired by the Vesara ideas found in Western regions of India.

Artwork

The rebuilt temple as found in the ruined form in the 19th century and the current temple used recovered parts of previous temple with significant artwork. The new temple has added and integrated the new panels with a few old ones, the color of the stone distinguishing the two. The panels and pillars with historic artwork were and are found in the south and southwest side of the Somnath temple. In general, the reliefs and sculpture is mutilated, to the point that it is difficult for most to “identify the few images that remain” on panels, states Cousens. An original Nataraja (Tandava Shiva), albeit with chopped arms and defaced, can be seen on the south side. A mutilated Nandi is to the right. To the left of this are traces of Shiva-Parvati, with the goddess seated in his lap. Towards the north-east corner, portions of panels in a band similar to Ramayana scenes in historic Hindu temples can be traced. Sections can be seen with “beautiful vertical mouldings, on either side of the main front doorway”, states Cousens, and this suggests that the destroyed temple was “exceedingly richly carved”. The temple likely had a galaxy of Vedic and Puranic deities, as one of the partially surviving relief shows Surya’s iconography – two lotuses in his hand. The older temple featured an open plan, with great windows that allow light into the mandapa and circumambulation passage. The intricate and detailed artwork inside and on the pillars of Somnath temple were quite similar to those found in the Luna Vasahi temple at Mount Abu.

Tirtha and festivals

The Somnath-Prabhasa tirtha has been one of the revered tirtha (pilgrimage) site for the Hindus. It is the famed Prabhasa site found in Brahmi script inscriptions in Maharashtra sites.It is mentioned in the poems of Kalidasa. The new temple is the top pilgrimage site in Gujarat along with Dwarka.

Archaeological studies

The Somnath temple site and coastline has been excavated for archaeological evidence by Indian teams. The first major excavation was completed in 1950–51 just before the Somnath temple was reconstructed. It was led by B. K. Thapar, one of the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India, and a report published. This Thapar study yielded direct and substantial evidence of a 10th-century or earlier large temple. B. K. Thapar estimated the older temple to be from the 9th century, while Dhaky states to more likely from the 10th century, i.e. from 960 to 973 CE. The Thapar study also found artifacts and ruins with ancient scripts such as Brahmi and later scripts such as proto-Nagari and Nagari, thus confirming the antiquity of Somnath-Patan through at least much of the 1st-millennium.

Triveni Sangam in Gir Somnath

The Triveni Sangam in Gir Somnath is located 1,4 km from Somnath temple ,Veraval in Gir Somnath district, Gujarat. It marks the confluence of rivers Hiran, Kapila and the Saraswati, where they meet the Arabian Sea on the west coast of India. Most of the people visit here to take bath and to perform rituals. Its believed that taking bath at this Sangam will remove all our sins. The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam: The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II recorded that he has visited tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara, an alternative name for the temple.

Triveni Sangam is said to be a place where Hindus can attain moksha or release from the cycle of life and death. One can see a number of people praying or just experiencing the spiritual atmosphere sitting by the stairs. The fervour is often upstaged by hundreds of gulls that flock at the stepped ghats. The significance of the Triveni Sangam dates back to thousands of years ago when the rivers Hiran, Kapila and the Sarswati.

Junagadh:

Its the city and headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located at the foot of the Girnar hills, 355 kilometres  southwest of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (the state capital), it is the seventh largest city in the state. It is dominated by the Chudasama clan of Rajputs since ancient times.

Main tourist attractions:

Gate of the city of Junagadh, Statue of Narsinh Mehta, Ashoka’s Rock Edict at Girnar, Girnar Hills, Radha Damodar Temple, Junagadh, Damodar Kund, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Junagadh, Mahabat Maqbara

Literally translated, Junagadh means “Old Fort”. It was a part of Saurashtra state and later Bombay state. In 1960, in consequence of the Maha Gujarat movement, it became part of the newly formed Gujarat state.

History

As per the legend, the founder of the Ror Dynasty Raja Dhaj, Ror Kumar, also known as Rai Dyach, ruled over the principality of Jhunagarh in the fifth century BC. An early structure, Uparkot Fort, is located on a plateau in the middle of town. It was originally built in 319 BCE during the Mauryan dynasty by Chandragupta . The fort remained in use until the 6th century, after which it was abandoned for approximately 300 years. It was later rediscovered by the Chudasama ruler Graharipu in 976 CE.The fort was subsequently besieged 16 times over a 1000-year period. One unsuccessful siege lasted twelve years.

Within 2 kilometres of Uparkot Fort is an inscription with fourteen Edicts of Ashoka on a large boulder. The inscriptions are in Brahmi script in a language similar to Pali and date from 250 BCE. On the same rock there is a later inscription in Sanskrit, which was added around 150 CE by Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I, the Saka (Scythian) ruler of Malwa, and a member of the Western Kshatrapas dynasty,and which has been described as “the earliest known Sanskrit inscription of any extent”.Another inscription dates from about 450 CE and refers to Skandagupta, the last Gupta emperor. Old rock-cut Buddhist caves in this area, dating from well before 500 CE, have stone carvings and floral work. There are also the Khapra Kodia Caves north of the fort, and the Bava Pyara Caves south of the fort. The Bava Pyara caves contain artworks of both Buddhism and Jainism.

The Maitraka dynasty ruled Gujarat from 475 to 767 CE. The founder of the dynasty, General Bhatarka, military governor of Saurashtra peninsula under the Gupta Empire, established himself as the independent ruler of Gujarat around the last quarter of the 5th century.

Chudasama dynasty

The early history of the Chudasama dynasty – which ruled Saurashtra from Junagadh – is almost lost. Bardic legends vary significantly in the names, order, and number of early rulers, making them unreliable as historical sources. According to tradition, the dynasty is said to have been founded in the late 9th century by Chudachandra. Subsequent rulers such as Graharipu, Navaghana, and Khengara, were in conflict with the Chaulukya rulers Mularaja and Jayasimha Siddharaja; and Saurashtra was briefly governed by Chaulukya governors during this period. These events are recorded in contemporary and later Jain chronicles In 1350, Junagadh was conquered by Muhammad bin Tughluq with the help and forces of Koli chieftain Jesaji (Jesing) from Ra Khengar.

After the end of the rule of the Chaulukyas and their successors, the Vaghela dynasty, in Gujarat, the Chudasamas ruled independently, or as vassals of successor states, the Delhi Sultanate and the Gujarat Sultanate. Mandalika I was the first Chudasama ruler known from inscriptions, and during his reign, Gujarat was invaded by the Khalji dynasty of Delhi. The last king of the dynasty, Mandalika III, was defeated and forcibly converted to Islam in 1472 by Gujarat Sultan Mahmud Begada, who annexed the state. The Uparkot Fort of Junagadh was occupied by the Chudasamas during the reign of Graharipu. It is said to have been later rebuilt by Navaghana, who had transferred his capital from Vamanasthali to Junagadh. He is also credited with construction of the stepwells Navghan Kuvo and Adi Kadi Vav in the fort. His descendant Khengara is attributed with building a stepwell, Ra Khengar Vav, on the way to Vanthali from Junagadh.

Best time to visit Somnath/Junagarh is in the cooler months of November to Feb.

My dear readers may please note that I have collated the above invaluable information on ‘Somnath Teerth & Junagadh’ from Wikipedia & friends to whom I am so very grateful.