Somanatha – The Shrine Eternal

Title: Somanatha – The Shrine Eternal

Author: K M Munshi

Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1976 (First published 1951)

ISBN: Nil

Pages: 186

 

Sometimes a place of worship is more than a location where devotees gather to offer hymns or libation to the deity and go home contended afterwards. When that place gets elevated in importance such as the direct patronage of a king or the allegiance of a large group of people, it becomes the symbol of the kingdom or nation. An attack or act of desecration of the place then becomes an atrocity against the people. Even those belonging to other religions then get offended at an affront to that shrine. The Somanath temple is one such institution that is acting as shorthand for India’s destiny in the last millennium. Coincidentally, the fall of the temple to Muslim invaders historically marks the birth of the longer of the two colonialisms that crushed India under its boots – the Muslim colonialism. The temple was destroyed many times, but the undying national spirit reconstructed it each time though on some occasions it was converted to a mosque. After India gained independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel intervened to reconstruct the temple under government supervision. The first edition of this book was hurriedly written to synchronize its publication with the installation ceremony of Somanatha in May 1951. This book is published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan as part of a book university series containing 100 books each in nine languages. The objectives are the reintegration of Indian culture in the light of modern knowledge and to suit our present-day needs and the resuscitation of the fundamental values in their pristine vigour. Kanaiyalal Maneklal Munshi, popularly known as K M Munshi, was an Indian independence activist, politician, writer and educationist from Gujarat. A lawyer by profession, he had served as a minister in Nehru’s first cabinet and later as governor of Uttar Pradesh. This book was written while he was serving as the chairman of the advisory board of Somanatha Trust which was tasked with the rebuilding of the temple.

 

Somanatha temple was well known in India in the ancient past. Prabhasa Tirtha, where the shrine is located, is mentioned in the Mahabharata. Soma, the moon god, bathes at the point where the river Saraswati joins the sea and worships Shiva at the shrine – so the legends go. To visit Prabhasa on a moonless night which falls on a Monday, to undertake a fast, to bathe where Saraswati river meets the sea and to have a darshan of Somanatha is believed to render merit equivalent to numberless religious sacrifices. It was the place where the Yadavas fought among themselves which extinguished the tribe. This was where Srikrishna died after hit by an arrow. The first temple of Somanatha was probably established by the beginning of Christian era. The powerful Pashupata sect is centred around this temple. The first epigraphic evidence of Somanatha is of 960 CE in which Ananta Deva, a northern Shilahara king, came with an army to worship Somanatha at Prabhasa.

 

Mahmud of Ghazni was the first invader who had sacked Somanatha. Munshi gives a detailed account of the invasion without going into the gory particulars. On the morning of Oct 18, 1025, Mahmud left Ghazni with 30,000 cavalry. An equal number of camels carried the supply of water. They crossed the Thar desert and reached Patan. On Jan 8, 1026, after a battle in which 50,000 Indians laid down their lives, Mahmud captured the fort, entered the temple that was sanctified by centuries of devotion. He broke the linga to pieces, looted the temple and burnt it to the ground. Munshi then claims that Mahmud quickly left the place on the news of the approach of a powerful Hindu army. But al-Biruni writes four years later that Mahmud ‘utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions’. Mahmud invaded Somanatha seventeen times, but the author provides a much sanitized version in which only the first attempt is mentioned. Probably, working under Nehru must have prompted him to placate his boss’ secular image and by corollary, to be economical with truth.

 

Not only content with the ignominy of desecration they heaped on Somanath, Muslim invaders converted it to a mosque twice. In 1299, Alaf Khan, a general of Ala-ud-din Khilji, sacked Prabhasa. He broke open the shrine, shattered the idol to pieces and carried away the fragments in a cart to Delhi. In 1469, Muhammad Bedga converted Somanatha into a mosque. But the structure went under ruin with no worship whether Hindu or Muslim. In 1701, Aurangzeb ordered to destroy the temple beyond possibility of repairs. By the nineteenth century, the Nawab of Junagadh happened to be the custodian of the structure, but the ruler of Baroda, who was a Hindu, managed religious affairs. There were frequent disputes between the two princes as the Muslim Nawab still wanted to control the temple, probably deriving inspiration from his predecessors. These were adjudicated by the British who mostly favoured the Nawab. After partition of India, the Nawab suddenly acceded to Pakistan. But the state was not geographically contiguous with that country and the population was overwhelmingly Hindu. The people rose in rebellion and the dog-loving Nawab fled with his kennel while leaving his wives behind. The author remarks that even in 1948, the gudhamandapa (central hall) was partly covered by a mosque-like dome. The structure was demolished and a grand temple erected in its place.

 

Munshi spends some time in listing out reconstruction efforts that had taken place on the temple. In fact, it was repaired and reconstructed immediately after Ghazni’s first attempt in 1026. Heroic action followed each successive raid. But the most magnificent was by Kumarapala who reconstructed the temple in 1169, which was the Fifth Temple. Aged, infirm, desecrated, it stood till Sardar Patel rescued it from neglect and pledged himself to its reconstruction. The decision to rebuild the temple was announced by Patel on Nov 13, 1947. Foundation was laid for the Seventh Temple (historically) on May 8, 1950. Installation of idols took place in May 1951 in the presence of Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, under fierce opposition from Nehru who feared that secularism would be eclipsed by the republic’s president attending a religious ceremony. Prasad did not cave in to Nehru and boldly attended citing national honour. Munshi does not elaborate on this issue. The construction of the temple was completed fourteen years later in 1965. The overall height of the structure was 155 feet. No temple of this size has been built in India for the last 800 years.

 

After the Indian government started the activities for reconstruction with privately subscribed funds, suggestions arose to retain the old ruined temple as such. The author accuses them of worshiping dead monuments. However, the committee ruled out the idea as the temple lived in the sentiment of the whole nation and decided to rebuild it at the same place. After all, if the archeologists wanted a ruined temple for academic purposes, they are spoilt for choice among thousands of such dilapidated shrines destroyed by Muslim invaders elsewhere in India. In a lighter sense, it was a forerunner of the rallying cry of mandir wahi banayenge by about four decades. An intensive excavation by professionals brought to light material remains of earlier temples buried below. Centuries of vandalism has left nothing but traces of the great temple to testify to its ancient grandeur.

 

The book is confessed to be hurriedly written to coincide with the installation of idols in 1951. All the data was collected in the short period and much referential depth is lacking in the narrative. A part of the book titled ‘History of Excavation’ is written by B K Thapar of the Archeological Survey. There is much repetition between the different parts of the book. Verbatim reproduction of long epigraphic texts adds no value to the readability of the book. Several rare photographs are included in this small volume which are not available from other sources. Altogether, the book is a fine example of a first attempt to recreate history of a monument that is indistinguishable with national pride.

 

The book is recommended.

 

Rating: 3 Star