History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.Campbell, James M.
History
History of Gujarát: Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume I, Part I.
Campbell, James M.
Gujarat (India) -- History
The Kumárapálaprabandha gives the following limits of Kumárapála's
sway. The Turushkas or Turks on the north; the heavenly Ganges on
the east; the Vindhya mountains on the south; the Sindhu river on
the west. [611] Though in tradition Kumárapála's name does not
stand so high as a builder as the name of Siddharája Jayasimha
he carried out several important works. The chief of these was
the restoring and rebuilding of the great shrine of Somesvara or
Somanátha Patan. According to the Prabandhachintámani when Kumárapála
asked Devasúri the teacher of Hemáchárya how best to keep his name
remembered Devasúri replied: Build a new temple of Somanátha fit to
last an age or yuga, instead of the wooden one which is ruined by the
ocean billows. Kumárapála approved and appointed a building committee
or pañchakula headed by a Bráhman named Ganda Bháva Brihaspati
the state officer at Somanátha. At the instance of Hemáchárya the
king on hearing the foundations were laid vowed until the temple
was finished he would keep apart from women and would take neither
flesh nor wine. In proof of his vow he poured a handful of water over
Nílakantha Mahádeva, probably his own royal god. After two years the
temple was completed and the flag hoisted. Hemáchárya advised the
king not to break his vow until he had visited the new temple and
paid his obeisance to the god. The king agreed and went to Somanátha,
Hemáchárya preceding him on foot and promising to come to Somanátha
after visiting Satruñjaya and Girnár. On reaching Somanátha the king
was received by Ganda-Brihaspati his head local officer and by the
building committee, and was taken in state through the town. At the
steps of the temple the king bowed his head to the ground. Under the
directions of Ganda-Brihaspati he worshipped the god, made gifts of
elephants and other costly articles including his own weight in coin,
and returned to Anahilapura.
It is interesting to know that the present battered sea-shore temple
of Somanátha, whose garbhágára or shrine has been turned into a mosque
and whose spire has been shattered, is the temple of whose building
and consecration the above details are preserved. This is shown by
the style of the architecture and sculpture which is in complete
agreement with the other buildings of the time of Kumárapála. [612]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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