Sacred Facts · At a Glance
- Element
- water
Primary Scriptures
0 sourcesNo primary scriptures are catalogued for this entry yet. If you know of scriptural references we have missed, please contribute them.
vahana: "Nandi (sacred bull)" sacred_colours:
- saffron
- white
- gold sacred_flowers:
- lotus
- tulasi
- jasmine sacred_flowers:
- lotus
- tulasi
- champaka sacred_trees:
- peepal
- bilva (bael)
- tulasi sacred_animals:
- Nandi (sacred bull)
- peacock
- elephant sacred_colours:
- saffron
- white
- gold
vahana: "Nandi (sacred bull)"
primary_scriptures:
- title: "Skanda Purana — temple kshetra mahatmya" type: "purana" festival_dates:
- "Maha Shivaratri (Feb–Mar)"
- "Diwali (Oct–Nov)"
Somnath Temple — The Eternal Shrine
Seventeen Destructions, Seventeen Resurrections
One of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the Somnath temple was legendary for its wealth and was destroyed and rebuilt seventeen times — by Mahmud of Ghazni (1026), by the Delhi Sultanate, and by Aurangzeb's armies. The present temple was reconstructed in the Chalukya style after Independence, symbolizing national resilience.
The Junagadh Rock Inscription
The Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman (150 CE) mentions repairs to the temple — one of the earliest epigraphic references to a Hindu shrine. Arabic chronicles describe Mahmud's raid and the temple's legendary treasure.
The South Pole Alignment
The temple is positioned so that no land exists between it and the South Pole — a straight line over the ocean. This geographical peculiarity has been cited as evidence of the ancient architects' astronomical knowledge.
Sources & provenance
- 📜Primary sourceBookRomila Thapar. Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History (2000)
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