Somnath
Temple Name : Somnath temple
Devi : ChandraBhaga
Bhairava : Vakrathunda/Bhadresena
Organ: Abodomen 1st pack
Sanskrit letter: Jaa(1)
How to reach-
This is very near to veraval station (5 kilmomer) is well connected by roads and train from Ahmadabad(406 kilometer) and Dwaraka(230 kilomter).
About the place -
Somnath temple, one of the twelve Jyothirlingams, dedicated to Someshwara (moon on his head). This temple has a long history and in ancient texts, it was well described in the land of Saurashtra as Prabhas and also as madhureshwaram. I came along the way from Dwaraka to Harshid mata and then here via porbandhar. If we come by train, we can get down in verval station, otherwise in case of bus, we can step down in this temple stop.
It is believed that the Moon,Soma himself had originally built the temple out of gold. In some books, it refereed that Ravanan build it with gold, Krishna build it with silver in dwabara yug. It is said to be dwaraka is just 40 kilometer from prabhas. The place where lord Krishna’s leg is stitched with arrow is “balga theerth” – “Bhalka” is the name of the village, and “Tirtha” indicates that it is a holy place. There is a temple built by the tree that is said to be the same tree under which Krishna was sitting. On the altar there is a white Deity of Krishna in a sitting posture. One can see the bottom of Krishna’s foot, pink colored with different auspicious symbols. Nearby is the hunter, Jara, with folded hands and one knee on the floor. This place is a few km east of Veraval on the road to Somnath. and he went to the Hiranya river and left his body under kura tree, then arjuna came here and found his body and burnt his body with final funeral treat in allahabad, that place where his body burnt is called as “dhohothsarka” or Gita Mandir about 1km south of the Somnath Temple by the sea. It is said that Lord Krishna walked about 4km from Bhalka Tirtha to this place after he was shot in the foot by the hunter.
According to historical evidence, this temple was built by tara IV (he was harsha’s grandson) in 649 AD then it was again constructed by 800 Ad by chaulkyas after destruction by arab kings. During that time, the temple was very rich with ornaments, vessels made of gold, and there are totally 10000 villages paid tax for this temple and 1000 priests worked there and 300 dancers and musicians worked here. It was a educational center and also a business center with port for export. Pearls, emerald were abundant in Somnath. It was heard by turkey king, Muhamed ghazini, he well planned and attached the city in 1026 AD. That was a huge destruction or theft every held. Total city got ruined, each and every thing washed away, left nothing. In climax, he fired the whole city. After 50 years, the city can’t get up from the destruction. Then in 1169, king Kumarapala, with bhavaprahaspati a constructor, build the temple again. he build with golden dombs, silver peet for sivaling with ornaments and a great thing is a natraj idol which float in a hall with help of magnetic walls.
The temple again destructed by alludin kilji in 1300 AD and again in 1340 AD it was constructed by kenhur. In 1549 AD Gujarat sultan muhamed bhogda destructed this temple. After this for 400 years, there was no worship in this place. The people build a small temple outside the city and worshipped it. Then it was heard by Akalyabai,Indore queen she build a temple near by the destructed temple in 1783 Ad, still it is there opposite to the Somnath temple.
In 1947, a trust was formed and it was again constructed in the same place, in 1951 it was inaugurated by rajendra prasad and it was taken about 15 years to complete. This sea shore temple is 155 feet height and builds in nagari style with huge architectural designs. The main entrance is named as dhigvijya dwar. The siva lingam is huge in size with comparison of other jothirlings.
Now, the shakthi peet – there should be a separate shrine for Devi in ancient times. When we come around the temple, slightly back of main, we can see a stage. It’s like remaining of a sub shrine that is destructed on the top. But during re-construction of Somnath temple, the trustees forget or didn’t take care to rebuild the Devi shrine. They left it as it is.
We can see a arrow mark in south side of this temple, that indicates that is no land at that region that will end with endless sea up to south pole, we can verify this in the map.
But we can see Devi idol behind the jyothirlingam itself in the wall. There is a big hall in front of the main sanctum where usually devotees sung bhajans. At that time I went, there are lot of Tamils sang thevaram hymns in front of Somnath.
