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Historical PeriodEra
Oral / medieval / documented history
📷 B. SurajPatro1997 · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · source
Deities
Somnātha of Prabhas
1st of the 12 Jyotirlingas — oldest, most-destroyed-and-rebuilt
1st of the 12 Jyotirlingas — oldest, most-destroyed-and-rebuilt
Hindu / Shaiva
Somnātha — 1st of the 12 Jyotir-liṅgas — on the Arabian sea coast of Gujarat. The shrine has been destroyed and rebuilt 17 times — most notoriously by Mahmud of Ghazni (1025 CE, who took 20 camels of gold). The current structure is the 7th reconstruction, built 1951 after Indian independence under the direction of Sardar Patel. At Somnath the triveni-saṅgam of Kapila, Hiraṇyā, and Sarasvatī rivers meets the sea. Legend: here Krishna was shot by the hunter Jara and ascended to his loka. The temple is considered the first Shiva-Jyotir-liṅga on Lord Shiva's own darśanam.
India's sacred landscape embraces Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Zoroastrian, tribal, regional-folk traditions — each with its own cosmology and priestly lineage. This entry honours Hindu on its own terms.
