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Religious position
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Somanātha : Somanātha, one of the most important Jyotirlingas was situated on the southern shore of Kathiawar in Saurāṣtra (IV. 12). Hemacandra has given some descriptions of the journey to Somanātba.
He is called Vrşagāmin. The name of Somanātha was recited like the recitation of the word Om. (X.11). Kings visited the shrine and presented jewells and valuables to the templet. The statue was bathed with the water of the Ganges. (XV.43). The linga was dressed in various colours of silk (XV.44) and fragrant objects like Agaru (sapdal) and Dhūpa were offered (XV.44).
It was an auspicious pilgrimage where pilgrims got their hair cut. Peope came to Somanātha from all the directions to pay their oblations4. (XV.86-87).
1. The richness of the temple can be inferred as it was a point of
attraction for invaders who came to plunder it. The details of its prosperity and grandeur are found in Elliot, H.M. The history of India as told by its own historians vol. I. London, 1867 pp. 97-98.ard Dow, Alexander, Hisiory of Hindoostan, Translated from farishta, London. 1768 etc. 2. Cousens, Henry, Archæological Survey of india XLV. (Imperiel Series) p.19. The information is based on Ibn-Asir and
Farishta. 3. Dy. XV. 54. Abhayatilakagani remarks: सोमनाथयात्रायां हि यात्रिकः केशा उत्तार्यन्ते This statement is supported by the accounts of Farishta and Ibn-Asir. There was three hundred barbars to shave the pilgrims. These accounts are found in : Dow, Alexander, History of Hindoostan, p. 86 and Elliot, H. M. History of lodia, Vol. II.
London, 1869, p. 468, Appendix. 4. Dow, Alexander, op. cit., p. 85. Farishta has remarked "In the
time of eclipses we are told that there used to be forty or fifty thousand worshippers at the temple ; and that the different Rājas of Hindustan bad bestowed, in all, two thousand villages with their territories for the maintenance."
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