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File:1869 archive photo of the Somanatha temple, Veraval Gujarat, Interior 14.jpg

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Captions

Captions

The Hindu Somnath temple (Deo Patan) had been converted into an Islamic mosque, photo by D.H. Sykes (from the northeast view)

Summary edit

Description
English: Somanatha temple is a historic Shiva temple, a jyotirlinga and one of the most revered pilgrimage site for the Hindus.
  • It has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. The temple's history is the subject of social, political and scholarly controversy.
  • The above image is a photograph of an archival print published by D.H. Sykes in 1869. It is now preserved at the British Library as Item "Photo 1000/7(788)". It is about 23 cm x 29 cm.
  • Sykes took several photos, both of the exterior and the interior as this temple's form and condition in 1869. This is one of the exterior photos of the temple-converted-into-mosque.
  • The curator notes with the photograph at the British library state, "Prabhas Patan is an important Hindu pilgrimage centre, considered to be one of the sights of Shiva's Jyotirlingas. The Somanatha Temple was originally founded in the 10th century on the shore of the Arabian Sea. The wealth of the temple attracted many raiders, such as Mahmud of Ghazni who destroyed the sanctuary in 1026. Later the temple was rebuilt during the Solanki period by Kumarapala (r.1143-72). In the report, 'Somanatha and other mediaeval temples in Kathiawad' of 1931, Henry Cousens wrote, “ Little now remains of the walls of the temple; they have been, in great measure, rebuilt and pached with rubble to convert the building into a mosque. The great dome, indeed the whole roof and the stumpy minars…are portions of the Muhammadans additions…The great temple, which faces the east, consisted, when entire, of a large central closed hall, or gudhamandapa, with three entrances, each protected with a deep lofty porch, and the shrine – the sanctum sanctorum – wich stood upon the west side of the hall, having a broad pradakshina or circumambulatory passage around it...The interior of the temple having being used as a mosque, the Muhammadans...re-erected many of the fallen pillars, roughly rebuilt the dome, and strengthened the cracked lintels with roughly constructed arches, beneath them...”. This description probably reflects the state of the building when this photograph was taken. The current temple building is a modern reconstruction in the traditional Solanki style."
  • The 1869 structure shown above was demolished, panels and ruins extracted from it, and a temple complex was rebuilt in early 1950s. The new reconstruction is still at sea shore, but was shifted slightly inland for the safety of the pilgrims.
GPS location of the monument:
20° 53′ 15.8″ N, 70° 24′ 05.4″ E Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMapinfo
  • For other photos taken by Sykes see:
  • This is a photograph of 2D art published in 1869 and which in public domain. Therefore PD-Art guidelines of Wikimedia Commons apply. Any rights I have as a photographer, I release it into the public domain through Wikimedia Commons.
Date
Source Own work
Author Ms Sarah Welch

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