Somnath Temple : Three Day Visit Of President Of India
The President, on a three-day visit to Gujarat, offered prayers at the historic Somnath Mahadev temple in Gir Somnath district recently.
- Somnath Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.
- It is located in Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat.
- It is the first of the 12 jyotirlinga shrines in India that are regarded as the manifestation of the Lord Shiva Himself.
- The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam: the confluence of three rivers, namely Kapila, Hiran, and Saraswati.
- The ancient temple’s timeline can be traced from 649 BC but is believed to be older than that.
- The temple was reconstructed several times in the past after repeated destruction by multiple Muslim invaders and rulers, notably starting with an attack by Mahmud Ghazni in the 11 th century.
- The present temple was reconstructed in the Chalukya style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951.
- The reconstruction was completed by Vallabhbhai Patel.
