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Structural Temples of the Caulukyan Period
145 The Great temple of Somanātha at Prabhas Patan (Dist. Junagadh)
The Dvyāšraya, and other chronicles state that Kumārapāla (A. D. 1144-1173) restored the temple of Somnātha, 136
136. DV. XX, 91-94; also Verava! Piaśasti (of Bhāva Bșhaspati ) BPSI, 186 ff.
This temple was reconstructed and restored several times. The shrine originally was erected during the rule of Maitrakas. Mūlarāja the founder of Caulukya ( Solanki ) dynasty visited and worshipped the God Śiva at the shrine. The temple was destroyed by Mahamud in A. D. 1025; but it was not completely destroyed by him. Its distruction was carried out by the lieutenent whom he left behind to gyvern the country. Bhima I rebuilt the shrine in about in A. D. 1100. Jayasinha Siddharāja visited the temple. Between that time and A. D. 1169, the temple was probably sacked again and was allowed to fall into ruin for it is in that year that Kumārpāla reconstructed it. This we know from a dated incription still extant in the temple of Bhadrakāli at Somanath.
Then A'afkhan ( A. D. 1300 ) a general of Khilaji Sultan of Delhi attacked and destroyed the said temple. It was a serious attack. The śikhara or spire was thrown down. Again the rebuilding of the temple of Samanātha was carried out by the local Cudasama king Mahipāldeva (A. D. 1308-1325 ) but it was apparently not completed during his life time. But his son Khengar IV (A. D. 1325--1351 ) set up the linga in the temple. (More V. N. Somnatha (1948) pp. 18 ff).
About 1394 A. D. Zaffarkhan, the Governor of Gujarat destroyed the Somanātha temple (B. G. Vol XXII, p. 233 ). Again the Sultan Mahmmuda Shah I better known as Mahmud Begda in about 1471 A. D. removed the linga from the temple and converted it into a mosque. But the edifice was not used as a mosque for any length of time. It appears that the level of the temple was raised and it was reconstructed in about 1500 A. D. and the worship of Somanātha continued in the temple. The sultanate of Gujarat became decadent very soon. Emperor Akabar marched on Gujarat and annexed it to his empire in 1573
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