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JUNE, 1925)
ANCIENT TOWNS AND CITIES IN GUJARAT AND KATHIAWAD
प्रभासं चोदधौ तीर्थ त्रिदशानां युधिष्ठिर ।। If then there was no Siva tomple, why was it regarded in thoso carly times as a holy place of pilgrimage is the noxt question. It is possible to see in the association of Sri Krishna with the place a possible cause of its sanctity; but as no temple of Krishna is ever known to have existed at Prabhasa, we must rule this suggestion out of consideration.
In our opinion the holiness of the place was originally due to its simply being an antara or a seasido place. Well-known is the tendenoy of our people of regarding a beautiful and attractive seaside place as a holy place. An analysis of the accounts of the placo given in the Adi and Mausala Parvans shows that at about 300 B.C. the place was regarded more 48 a seaside place of recreation, where jovial fairs were held, than as a holy tirtha.' Thus Adi P. chap. 218, describos Prabhasa as a holy but also as a lovely and attractive place 118, where Krishna and Arjuna sportively spent their time 119. Arjuna has come there on a pilgrimage, yet there is no reference made to any shrine visited or rites performed by him. It is therefore obvious that the place was regarded as holy simply owing to its propinquity to the sea. Hence it is described as an art arima. Sri Krishna's injunction to the Yadavas aruar agit arafa 96942:1 (Mau., 2-24) and their subsequent assemblage at Prabhasa shows that in those early times pilgrimage to the ocean meant pilgrimage to Prabh&sa; this supports our theory that Prabhasa was regarded as a 'tirtha ' simply because of its propinquity to the ocean. There existed in early times neither a temple of Siva nor a templo of Krishna. When exactly the temple of Siva was founded we do not know, but it cannot be much later than the first century A.D.; for most of the Puranas refer to it. We have already explained why no grants to the temple are discovered in modern times.
With the establishment of Siva worship the fortunes of the city rose rapidly. From the account of Ibn Asir 130 we know that every day thousands of pilgrims came to perform the worship and that 300 barbers were required to perform their 'Kshaura Karman.' Nor is this an exaggeration ; for, the pilgrim tax levied at Bahuloda alone on their frontier by Solanki kings used to yield a revenue of 72 lacs a year. 181 Ibn Asir further informs us that 10,000 villages were assigned to the temple. The number is of course exaggerated; but in spito of the absence of a single copper plate to attest any such grant (the cause of which We have already explained), we can well believe that the villages assigned to the temple were numerous. For the neighbouring Valabhi dynasty followed Saivism, and its liberality know no bounds. The Solankis again were followers of the sanie faith ; Mälarája is said 151 to have been visiting the place every week.
The wealth of the temple therefore ried with that of royalty; there was a chain of gold, 200 maunds in weight with golden bells attached to it, which was shaken at night, when a fresh party of Brahmaņas had to be roused from sleep for carrying on the worship. The dark chamber, in which the idol was kept suspended, was lit up by a chandelier of glistening gems. Mahmud's booty at the temple amounted to two million dinars.'
The wealth of the town was not solely due to the donations its temple received: the maritime commerce of the place must have contributed an important share. Alberuni says 113 that the reason why Somanatha became so famous was that it was a convenient station for ships plying between Sofala (in Zanzibar) and China. This statement is confirmed by Merutunga who narrates how Yogaraja, the grandson of Vanarâja, seized and plundered some storm-stayed ships at Prabhasa. But the maritime activity of the place paust have
ofta
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118 Pirateur afgang logora 119 of Eca rara e Foia II 111 Pbc., p. 84.
133 Pbc., p. 125.
130 B.G.I., 1. p. 165 ff. 133 Sahau's tran., II. p. 109.
