Somnath

Somnath stands on the southern coast of Saurashtra, where the sea meets a celebrated shrine of Shiva. The temple is one of the great pilgrimage places associated with the jyotirlingas, sacred manifestations of the deity. Its coastal setting linked the shrine to the religious and commercial routes of western India, drawing pilgrims and patrons from many regions.

In 1026 Mahmud of Ghazni raided the temple and carried away its wealth, an event recorded and retold in many later histories. The shrine was rebuilt, but in 1299 an army of the Delhi sultan Alauddin Khalji again sacked it during the conquest of Gujarat. Worship and rebuilding continued through later centuries despite further conflict and orders against the temple under Aurangzeb. Somnath’s long history of destruction, renewal and pilgrimage made it a place of enduring religious significance on the Arabian Sea.