162-671: Māru-Gurjarat architecture or Solaṅkī style , is the style of West Indian temple architecture that originated in Gujarat and Rajasthan from the 11th to 13th centuries, under the Chaulukya dynasty (also called Solaṅkī dynasty). Although originating as a regional style in Hindu temple architecture , it became especially popular in Jain temples , and mainly under Jain patronage later spread across India, then later to diaspora communities around
324-417: A gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹ 16.55 trillion (equivalent to ₹ 19 trillion or US$ 220 billion in 2023) and has the country's 10th-highest GSDP per capita of ₹ 215,000 (US$ 2,600). Gujarat has the highest exports of all states , accounting for around one-third of national exports. It ranks 21st among Indian states and union territories in human development index . Gujarat
486-425: A tirtha along with Prayaga , Pushkara , Gokarna . Bathing in one of these tirthas is meant to release one from the cycle of births and deaths. Archaeologically, there is no evidence that a temple existed at the site in ancient times. The site of Somnath has been a pilgrimage site from ancient times on account of being a Triveni Sangam (the confluence of three rivers: Kapila, Hiran and Saraswati). Soma ,
648-640: A "golden age", and the Māru-Gurjara style evidently became something of a standard for Jains, specifically the Śvetāmbara wing of the religion. The style began to re-appear in Jain temples in the same area in the 15th century, and then spread elsewhere in India, initially moving eastwards. The Adinatha Ranakpur Jain temple in Rajasthan is a major construction for a merchant, built between 1439 and 1458 or 1496. It
810-634: A Sanskrit scholar known for his translations and studies on Indic texts including the Mahabharata , states that the appropriate context for the legends and mythologies in the Mahabharata are the Vedic mythologies which it borrowed, integrated and re-adapted for its times and its audience. The Brahmana layer of the Vedic literature already mention tirtha related to the Saraswati river. However, given
972-679: A bit later. The Somnath temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism, but the "Prabhasa-Pattana" is mentioned as a tirtha (pilgrimage site). For example, the Mahabharata (c. 400 CE in its mature form) in Chapters 109, 118 and 119 of the Book Three ( Vana Parva ), and Sections 10.45 and 10.78 of the Bhagavata Purana state Prabhasa to be a tirtha on the coastline of Saurashtra. Alf Hiltebeitel –
1134-685: A decaying wooden temple. During its 1299 invasion of Gujarat , Alauddin Khalji 's army, led by Ulugh Khan , defeated the Vaghela king Karna , and sacked the Somnath temple. Legends in the later texts Kanhadade Prabandha (15th century) and Nainsi ri Khyat (17th century) state that the Jalore ruler Kanhadadeva later recovered the Somnath idol and freed the Hindu prisoners, after an attack on
1296-400: A fresh lot of brahmans to perform worship. The floor plan and ruins of a pre-1000 CE temple were unearthed during the archaeological excavations led by B.K. Thapar. Most of the temple is lost, but the remains of the foundation, the lower structure as well as pieces of the temple ruins suggest an "exquisitely carved, rich" temple. According to Dhaky – a scholar of Indian temple architecture, this
1458-572: A group that included Arab theologian Ibn Suwaid , several Sayyid Sufi members of the Aydarus family of Tarim in Yemen , Iberian court interpreter Ali al-Andalusi from Granada , and the Arab jurist Bahraq from Hadramaut who was appointed a tutor of the prince. Among the illustrious names who arrived during the reign of Mahmud Begada was the philosopher Haibatullah Shah Mir from Shiraz , and
1620-523: A large scale, and that is the presence in its basement of the asvathara or horse-moulding. It was probably about the same size, in plan, as the Rudra Mala at Siddhapur, being, in length, about 140 feet over all. [...] The walls, or, at least, the outer casing of them, having in great part fallen, there is revealed, in several places, the finished masonry and mouldings of the basement of an older temple, which appears not to have been altogether removed when
1782-486: A letter to his eldest son, Muhammad Azam Shah , asking him to be kind and considerate to the people of Dahod as it was his birthplace. Muhammad Azam was then the Subedar (governor) of Gujarat. In his letter, Aurangzeb wrote: My son of exalted rank, the town of Dahod, one of the dependencies of Gujarat, is the birthplace of this sinner. Please consider a regard for the inhabitants of that town as incumbent on you. When
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#17327733314271944-590: A lion might indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat. For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century CE, Saka rulers played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I (100 CE) of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps , or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on
2106-789: A list of the most sacred Shiva pilgrimage sites, along with a guide for visiting the site. The best known were the Mahatmya genre of texts. Of these, Somnatha temple tops the list of jyotirlingas in the Jnanasamhita – chapter 13 of the Shiva Purana , and the oldest known text with a list of jyotirlingas . Other texts include the Varanasi Mahatmya (found in Skanda Purana ), the Shatarudra Samhita and
2268-757: A mosque again in 1706; this order does seem to have been carried out, though very little effort seems to have been put into the conversion. In 1842, Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough issued his Proclamation of the Gates , in which he ordered the British army in Afghanistan to return via Ghazni and bring back to India the sandalwood gates from the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni in Ghazni, Afghanistan. These were believed to have been taken by Mahmud from Somnath. Under Ellenborough's instruction, General William Nott removed
2430-499: A much later two-storey porch at the entrance, which has elements from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes and arches. The main temple, in a courtyard considerably above ground level, is comparable to the earlier examples described above. The clustered group of Girnar Jain temples , with a magnificent mountain-top position, are mostly in the style, with the major temples ranging in date (of basic construction) from 1128, 1231, 1453 and another 15th century example. Other temples, like
2592-591: A number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya , was appointed the governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime. He ruled Girinagar (modern-day Junagadh ) (322 BCE to 294 BCE) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka the Great , the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya , not only ordered his edicts engraved in the rock at Junagadh, but also asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from
2754-651: A par with contemporary Venice and Beijing , great mercantile cities of Europe and Asia, and earned the distinguished title, Bab al-Makkah (Gate of Mecca). Drawn by the religious renaissance taking place under Akbar, Mohammed Ghaus moved to Gujarat and established spiritual centers for the Shattari Sufi order from Iran, founding the Ek Toda Mosque and producing such devotees as Wajihuddin Alvi of Ahmedabad whose many successors moved to Bijapur during
2916-413: A preference for white marble. The Māru-Gurjara style did not represent a radical break with earlier styles. The previous styles in north-west India are mentioned above, and the group of Jain temples of Khajuraho , forming part of the famous Khajuraho Group of Monuments are very largely in the same style as their Hindu companions, which were mostly built between 950 and 1050. They share many features with
3078-531: A referendum. India's Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel came to Junagadh on 12 November 1947 to direct the stabilization of the state by the Indian Army, at which time he ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple. When Patel, K. M. Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Mahatma Gandhi with their proposal to reconstruct the Somnath temple, Gandhi blessed the move but suggested that
3240-465: A smaller earlier temple. In 1026, during the reign of Bhima I , the Turkic Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided and plundered the Somnath temple, breaking its jyotirlinga . He took away a booty of 20 million dinars. According to Romila Thapar, relying on a 1038 inscription of a Kadamba king of Goa , the condition of Somnath temple in 1026 after Ghazni's is unclear because the inscription
3402-620: A symposium in Delhi in 1967". She notes that the change was an "attempt to avoid dynastic terms", and that both "Māru-Gurjara" and "Maru-Gurjara" are used by different writers, and that the Jain community mostly continues to call the style "Solanki". The style developed from that of the dynasties preceding the Solankis, mainly the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty , and the local dynasties under it. The most famous monuments of this period are
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#17327733314273564-469: A tall bhitta , joined to the jadyakumbha, ornamented with what Dhaky calls "crisp and charming foliage pattern". The kumbha of the Vedibandha had a Surasenaka with a niche that contained the figure of Lakulisa – this evidence affirms that the lost temple was a Shiva temple. The excavations yielded pieces of one at the western end, which suggests that the kumbhas were aligned to the entire wall. Above
3726-466: A vedibandha, possibly with a two-layered jangha with images on the main face showing the influence of the late Maha-Maru style. Another fragment found had a "beautifully moulded rounded pillarette and a ribbed khuraccadya-awning topped the khattaka". The mukhachatuski, states Dhaky, likely broke and fell immediately after the destructive hit by Mahmud's troops. These fragments suffered no further erosion or damage one would normally expect, likely because it
3888-526: A view to plunder and to satisfy the righteous iconoclasm of a true Muslim... [he] returned to Ghazna laden with costly spoils from the Hindu temples." Al-Biruni obliquely criticizes these raids for "ruining the prosperity" of India, creating antagonism among the Hindus for "all foreigners", and triggering an exodus of scholars of Hindu sciences far away from regions "conquered by us". Mahmud launched many plunder campaigns into India, including one that included
4050-478: Is "extremely luxuriant and exquisitely refined in the rendering of detail". The Rudra Mahalaya Temple was a large complex in Siddhpur Gujarat, mostly destroyed under Muslim rule. The main temple was surrounded by a screen of subsidiary shrines (partly surviving as a mosque), and the porches, parts of which remain, and a stand-alone torana were exceptionally grand. The mandapa had three storeys. It
4212-444: Is "flying" arch-like elements between pillars, touching the horizontal beam above in the centre, and elaborately carved. These have no structural function, and are purely decorative. The style developed large pillared halls, many open at the sides, with Jain temples often having one closed and two pillared halls in sequence on the main axis leading to the shrine. The style mostly fell from use in Hindu temples in its original regions by
4374-510: Is "puzzlingly silent" about Ghazni's raid or temple's condition. This inscription, states Thapar, could suggest that instead of destruction it may have been a desecration because the temple seems to have been repaired quickly within twelve years and was an active pilgrimage site by 1038. The raid of 1026 by Mahmud is confirmed by the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni, who worked in the court of Mahmud, who accompanied Mahmud's troops between 1017 and 1030 CE on some occasions, and who lived in
4536-496: Is a Digambar foundation, and the Digambar wing of Jainism always favoured the Māru-Gurjara style rather less, at least in India itself. The large Anandji Kalyanji Trust , which devotes itself to temple-building and renovation, has played a role in promoting the Māru-Gurjara style, at Palitana in particular. The 20th and 21st centuries, especially from about 1950, have seen increasing Jain diaspora communities in many parts of
4698-465: Is a state along the western coast of India . Its coastline of about 1,600 km (990 mi) is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area , covering some 196,024 km (75,685 sq mi); and the ninth-most populous state , with a population of 60.4 million in 2011. It is bordered by Rajasthan to
4860-464: Is a boastful claim that is "constantly reiterated" in Muslim texts, and becomes a "formulaic" figure of deaths to help highlight "Mahmud’s legitimacy in the eyes of established Islam". After being exhorted by Bhava Brihaspati , a Pashupata ascetic, Kumarapala (r. 1143–72) rebuilt the Somnath temple in "excellent stone and studded it with jewels," according to an inscription in 1169. He replaced
5022-401: Is a cupola, supported on pillars, to mark the grave of the sultan's cashkeeper, with many others; and the whole city is encircled by the remains of mosques, and one vast cemetery, ‘The field of battle, where the “infidels” were conquered, is also pointed out, and the massy walls, excavated ditch, paved streets, and squared-stone buildings of Pattan itself, proclaim its former greatness. At present
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5184-521: Is a detailed description of the temple architecture by AL KAZWI′NI′ in The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians . This idol was in the middle of the temple without anything to support it from below, or to suspend it from above. It was held in the highest honour among the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with amazement, whether he was a Musulmán or an infidel. The Hindus used to go on pilgrimage to it whenever there
5346-488: Is a thorough-going, but not strict, revival of Māru-Gurjara style, on the same broad model as Bhadreshwar, with a high outside wall of the back of shrines, but also a number of Islamic-style corbelled domes. There are four three-storey porches, already up two flights of steps. The interior of the temple is "unsurpassed for its spatial complexity", with the sanctuary at the centre of the compound surrounded by many mandapas of two or three storeys, with all levels very open between
5508-628: Is about 7 kilometres (4 mi) southeast of the Veraval railway junction, about 130 kilometres (81 mi) southeast of the Porbandar airport and about 85 kilometres (53 mi) west of the Diu airport . The Somnath temple is located close to the ancient trading port of Veraval , one of three in Gujarat from where Indian merchants departed to trade goods. The 11th-century Persian historian Al-Biruni states that Somnath has become so famous because "it
5670-553: Is elaborate carving, often still done by craftsmen from Gujarat or Rajasthan, this has more ornamental and decorative work than small figures. A similar mix is seen in many modern Hindu temples in India and abroad, for example those of the Swaminarayan sect, or the Prem Mandir, Vrindavan near Mathura (built 2001-2011). Sometimes the Māru-Gurjara influence is limited to the "flying arches" and mandapa ceiling rosettes, and
5832-463: Is intended as the Solanki style. The Sun Temple, Modhera , Gujarat, was built in 1026–27 CE, just after Mahmud's raid. The shikhara is now missing, but the lower levels are well-preserved, and there is a large stepwell tank of the same period in front of the temple. There is a large detached mandapa between the main sanctuary building and the tank, which is slightly later. The carving of all parts
5994-489: Is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites the Tirtha Kshetra for Hindus and is the first among the twelve jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva . It is unclear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE. The temple is not mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism; while various texts, including
6156-468: Is pardonable. There are Gujaratees settled everywhere. They work some for some and others for others. They are diligent, quick men in trade. They do their accounts with fingers like ours and with our very writings. Gujarat was one of the twelve original subahs (imperial top-level provinces) established by Mughal Emperor ( Badshah ) Akbar , with a seat at Ahmedabad, bordering on Thatta (Sindh), Ajmer , Malwa and later Ahmadnagar subahs. Aurangzeb ,
6318-533: Is regarded as one of the most industrialised states and has a low unemployment rate , but the state ranks poorly on some social indicators and is at times affected by religious violence . Gujarat is derived from the Gurjaras , who ruled Gujarat in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat were known as Gurjarat or Gurjarabhumi for centuries before the Mughal period. Gujarat
6480-399: Is the earliest known version of the Somnath temple. It was, what historic Sanskrit vastu sastra texts call the tri-anga sandhara prasada . Its garbhagriha (sanctum) was connected to a mukhamandapa (entrance hall) and gudhamandapa . The temple opened to the east. The stylobate of this destroyed temple had two parts: the 3 feet high pitha-socle and the vedibandha-podium. The pitha had
6642-504: The Mahabharata and Bhagavata Purana , mention a tirtha (pilgrimage site) at Prabhas Patan on the coastline of Saurashtra, where the temple is presently located, there is no evidence that a temple existed at the site in ancient times. 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 January 1026. In
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6804-602: The Ghoris had assumed a position of Muslim supremacy over North India, Qutbuddin Aibak attempted to conquer Gujarat and annexe it to his empire in 1197, but failed in his ambitions. An independent Muslim community continued to flourish in Gujarat for the next hundred years, championed by Arab merchants settling along the western coast. From 1297 to 1300, Alauddin Khalji , the Turko-Afghan Sultan of Delhi , destroyed
6966-581: The Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and Bappa Rawal of the Guhila dynasty . After this victory, the Arab invaders were driven out of Gujarat. General Pulakeshin , a Chalukya prince of Lata , received the title Avanijanashraya (refuge of the people of the earth) and honorific of "Repeller of the unrepellable" by the Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya II for his victory at
7128-654: The Hajj pilgrimage. In 1395, the temple was destroyed for the third time by Zafar Khan , the last governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate and later founder of Gujarat Sultanate . In 1451, it was desecrated by Mahmud Begada , the Sultan of Gujarat. By 1665, the temple, one of many, was ordered to be destroyed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb . However, the order appears not to have been carried out at that time. Aurangzeb ordered its destruction and conversion into
7290-715: The Hindu Swaminarayan tradition , with the Neasden temple in London (1995) an early example, and smaller ones built by the Jain diaspora, such as the Jain temple , Antwerp , Belgium (completed 2010), and temples in Potters Bar and Leicester in England. The name of the Māru-Gurjara style is a 20th-century invention; previously, and still by many, it is called the "Solanki style". The ancient name of Rajasthan
7452-620: The Khajuraho Group of Monuments built under the Chandela dynasty between 950 and 1050. These are famous for their erotic reliefs . Many of the broad features of this earlier style are continued in the Māru-Gurjara style. The beginnings of the new style can be seen in the small Ambika Mata temple in Jagat, Rajasthan. The earliest inscription here records a repair in 961 (well before the Solankis came to power). For George Mitchell, in
7614-576: The Kothirudra Samhita . All either directly mention the Somnath temple as the number one of twelve sites, or call the top temple as "Somesvara" in Saurashtra – a synonymous term for this site in these texts. The exact date of these texts is unknown, but based on references they make to other texts and ancient poets or scholars, these have been generally dated between the 10th and 12th century, with some dating it much earlier and others
7776-419: The Mahabharata , in several chapters and books mentions that this "Prabhasa" is at a coastline near Dvaraka . It is described as a sacred site where Arjuna and Balarama go on tirtha , a site where Lord Krishna chooses to go and spends his final days, then dies. Catherine Ludvik – a Religious Studies and Sanskrit scholar, concurs with Hiltebeitel. She states that the Mahabharata mythologies borrow from
7938-586: The Maurya and Gupta empires and during the succession of royal Saka dynasties in the Western Satraps era. Along with Bihar , Mizoram and Nagaland , Gujarat is one of four Indian states to prohibit the sale of alcohol . The Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat is home to the only wild population of the Asiatic lion in the world. The economy of Gujarat is the fourth-largest in India , with
8100-699: The Ottoman state . Humayun also briefly occupied the province in 1536, but fled due to the threat Bahadur Shah , the Gujarat king, imposed. The Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until 1572, when the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire . The Surat port (the only Indian port facing west) then became the principal port of India during Mughal rule, gaining widespread international repute. The city of Surat, famous for its exports of silk and diamonds , had reached
8262-634: The Ottomans and Egyptian Mamluks naval fleets led by governor-generals Malik Ayyaz and Amir Husain Al-Kurdi , vanquished the Portuguese in the 1508 Battle of Chaul resulting in the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean . To 16th-century European observers, Gujarat was a fabulously wealthy country. The customs revenue of Gujarat alone in the early 1570s was nearly three times
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#17327733314278424-713: The Republic of India on 19 December 1961 by military conquest. The British East India Company established a factory in Surat in 1614 following the commercial treaty made with Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir , which formed their first base in India, but it was eclipsed by Bombay after the English received it from Portugal in 1668 as part of the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza , daughter of King John IV of Portugal . The state
8586-422: The Soma " or "moon". The site is also called Prabhasa ("place of splendor"). Somnath temple has been a jyotirlinga site for the Hindus, and a holy place of pilgrimage ( tirtha ). It is one of five most revered sites on the seacoast of India, along with the nearby Dwaraka in Gujarat , Puri in Odisha , Rameswaram and Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu . Mahmud of Ghazni , in the year 1026 CE destroyed
8748-400: The Vaghela chiefs of Dholka came to rule the Kingdom of Gujarat . In 1292, the Vaghelas became tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan . Karandev of the Vaghela dynasty was the last Hindu ruler of Gujarat. He was defeated and overthrown by the superior forces of Alauddin Khalji from Delhi in 1297. With his defeat, Gujarat became part of the Delhi Sultanate , and
8910-424: The 10th century. The efforts of colonial era archaeologists, photographers and surveyors have yielded several reports on the architecture and arts seen at the Somnath temple ruins in the 19th century. The earliest survey reports of Somnath temple and the condition of the Somanatha-Patan-Veraval town in the 19th century were published between 1830 and 1850 by British officers and scholars. Alexander Burnes surveyed
9072-411: The 11th century included the destruction of Somnath as a righteous exemplary deed in their publications. It inspired the Persian side with a cultural memory of Somnath's destruction through "epics of conquest", while to the Hindu side, Somnath inspired tales of recovery, rebuilding and "epics of resistance". These tales and chronicles in Persia elevated Mahmud as "the exemplary hero and Islamic warrior for
9234-414: The 13th century, especially as the area had fallen to the Muslim Delhi Sultanate by 1298. But, unusually for an Indian temple style, it continued to be used by Jains there and elsewhere, with a notable "revival" in the 15th century. Since then it has continued in use in Jain and some Hindu temples, and from the 20th century has spread to temples built outside India. These include many large temples built by
9396-411: The 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 set up the Kingdom of Valabhi . He shifted his capital from Giringer to Valabhi , near Bhavnagar , on Saurashtra's east coast. The Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining Malwa . A university
9558-487: The 9th century. The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II ( r. 805–833 ) recorded that he has visited tirthas in Saurashtra, including Someshvara . Romila Thapar states that this does not imply the existence of a temple, but rather that it was a pilgrimage site ( tirtha ). The Chaulukya (Solanki) king Mularaja possibly built the first temple for Soma ("moon god") at the site sometime before 997 CE, even though some historians believe that he may have renovated
9720-399: The Chaulukya capital. With a very different architectural form and function, "throughout, the ornamentation of the architectural elements is sumptuous" in the contemporary temple style, including very many Hindu figures. Another non-temple example is the 80 foot Kirti Stambha tower in Chittor Fort , Rajasthan, built for a Jain merchant, mostly in the early 13th century, with the pavilion at
9882-415: The Delhi army near Jalore. However, other sources state that the idol was taken to Delhi, where it was thrown to be trampled under the feet of Muslims. These sources include the contemporary and near-contemporary texts including Amir Khusrau 's Khazainul-Futuh , Ziauddin Barani 's Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi and Jinaprabha Suri's Vividha-tirtha-kalpa . It is possible that the story of Kanhadadeva's rescue of
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#173277333142710044-451: The Dutch, French, English and Portuguese all established bases along the western coast of the region. Portugal was the first European power to arrive in Gujarat, and after the Battle of Diu , acquired several enclaves along the Gujarati coast, including Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli . These enclaves were administered by Portuguese India under a single union territory for over 450 years, only to be later incorporated into
10206-412: The European Middle Ages . The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea : Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century . In the early 8th century, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate established an empire in the name of the rising religion of Islam , which stretched from Spain in
10368-476: The Hindu metropolis of Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate . After Timur sacked Delhi at the end of the 14th century, weakening the Sultanate, Gujarat's Muslim Khatri governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar ( Muzaffar Shah I ) asserted his independence, and his son, Sultan Ahmed Shah (ruled 1411–1442), established Ahmedabad as the capital. Khambhat eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarat's most important trade port. Gujarat's relations with Egypt , which
10530-426: The Indus Valley civilisation. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about fifty Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat. The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear historical evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt , Bahrain and Sumer in the Persian Gulf during the time period of 1000 to 750 BCE. There
10692-455: The Jagat temple (and others he names) "the Pratihara style was fully evolved in its Western Indian expression". The Somnath temple , dedicated to Shiva , was the most famous in Gujarat, but was very largely destroyed by the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud in a raid in 1024–1025 CE. It was then rebuilt, but sacked again when the Delhi Sultanate conquered the area at the end of the 13th century. The ruins have recently been restored and rebuilt in what
10854-400: The Marathas was fully exploited by the British, who interfered in the affairs of both Gaekwads and the Peshwas. In Saurashtra , as elsewhere, the Marathas were met with resistance. The decline of the Mughal Empire helped form larger peripheral states in Saurashtra, including Junagadh , Jamnagar , Bhavnagar and a few others, which largely resisted the Maratha incursions. In the 1600s,
11016-409: The Moon god, is believed to have lost his lustre due to a curse, and he bathed in the Sarasvati River at this site to regain it. The result is said to be the waxing and waning of the moon. The name of the town, Prabhasa , meaning lustre, as well as the alternative name Someshvara ("the lord of the moon" or "the moon god"), arise from this tradition. The name Someshvara begins to appear starting in
11178-402: The Mughal Empire free access to the Arabian sea and control over the rich commerce that passed through its ports. The territory and income of the empire were vastly increased. For the best part of two centuries, the independent Khatri Sultanate of Gujarat was the cynosure of its neighbours on account of its wealth and prosperity, which had long made the Gujarati merchant a familiar figure in
11340-406: The Muslims", states Malik, while in India Mahmud emerged as the exemplary "arch-enemy". Powerful legends with intricate detail developed in the Turko-Persian literature regarding Mahmud's raid,. According to historian Cynthia Talbot, a later tradition states that "50,000 devotees lost their lives in trying to stop Mahmud" during his sack of Somnath temple. According to Thapar, the "50,000 killed"
11502-432: The Māru-Gurjara style, with many similarities to Bhadreshwar and Ranakpur. There is a good deal of "sharply sculpted" decoration, "but figures appear only at the brackets". There are three sanctuaries in a row, and so three shikharas, but the porch and the outer mandapa each have three domes. But the style is not invariably used: the large Ajmer Jain temple (1864–1895) in Rajasthan uses a kind of Neo-Mughal style. This
11664-580: The Māru-Gurjara style: high plinths with many decorated bands on the walls, lavish figurative and decorative carving, balconies looking out on multiple sides, ceiling rosettes, and others, but at Khajuraho the great height of the shikharas is given more emphasis. There are similarities with the contemporary Hoysala architecture from much further south. In both of these styles architecture is treated sculpturally. Gujarat Gujarat ( / ˌ ɡ ʊ dʒ ə ˈ r ɑː t / GUUJ -ə- RAHT ; ISO : Gujarāt , Gujarati: [ˈɡudʒəɾat̪] )
11826-548: The Portuguese, and followed by the Dutch and the English. The Peshwas had established sovereignty over parts of Gujarat and collected taxes and tributes through their representatives. Damaji Rao Gaekwad and Kadam Bande divided the Peshwa territory between them, with Damaji establishing the sway of Gaekwad over Gujarat and making Baroda (present day Vadodara in southern Gujarat) his capital. The ensuing internecine war among
11988-626: The Rajput hold over Gujarat would never be restored. Fragments of printed cotton from Gujarat have been discovered in Egypt, providing evidence for medieval trade in the western Indian Ocean. These fragments represent the Indian cotton traded in Egypt during the Fatimid , Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, from the tenth to sixteenth centuries. Similar cotton was also traded as far east as Indonesia. After
12150-568: The Somnath idol is a fabrication by the later writers. Alternatively, it is possible that the Khalji army was taking multiple idols to Delhi, and Kanhadadeva's army retrieved one of them. The temple was rebuilt by Mahipala I , the Chudasama king of Saurashtra in 1308 and the lingam was installed by his son Khengara sometime between 1331 and 1351. As late as the 14th century, Gujarati Muslim pilgrims were noted by Amir Khusrow to stop at that temple to pay their respects before departing for
12312-405: The Somnath temple was a little less than three miles west of the mouth of the river Sarasvati. The temple was situated on the coast of the Indian ocean so that at the time of flow the idol was bathed by its water. Thus that moon was perpetually occupied in bathing the idol and serving it." Al-Biruni states that Mahmud destroyed the Somnath temple. He states Mahmud's motives as, "raids undertaken with
12474-431: The Vedic texts but modify them from Brahmin-centered "sacrificial rituals" to tirtha rituals that are available to everyone – the intended audience of the great epic. More specifically, she states that the sacrificial sessions along the Saraswati river found in sections such as of Pancavimsa Brahmana were modified to tirtha sites in the context of the Saraswati river in sections of Vana Parva and Shalya Parva . Thus
12636-575: The Veraval area, as well as the temple. The site of Prabhas Patan was occupied during the Indus Valley Civilisation , 2000–1200 BCE. It was one of very few sites in the Junagadh district to be so occupied. After abandonment in 1200 BCE, it was reoccupied in 400 BCE and continued into the historical period. Prabhas is also close to the other sites similarly occupied: Junagadh, Dwarka , Padri and Bharuch . Somnath means "Lord of
12798-400: The ancient Indus Valley civilisation (more than any other state). The most important sites are Lothal (the world's first dry dock), Dholavira (the fifth largest site), and Gola Dhoro (where 5 uncommon seals were found). Lothal is believed to have been one of the world's first seaports . Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat , served as ports and trading centres in
12960-432: The appearance it now presents, of a temple evidently of pagan original altered by the introduction of a Mohammedan style of architecture in various portions, but leaving its general plan and minor features unmolested. [...] The temple consists of one large hall in an oblong form, from one end of which proceeds a small square chamber, or sanctum. The centre of the hall is occupied by a noble dome over an octagon of eight arches;
13122-699: The banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region bordering Punjab. In Gujarat, several battles were fought between the Indian dynasties such as the Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest and the mightiest ruler of the Satavahana dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE. The Kshatrapa dynasty
13284-469: The battle at Navsari , where the Arab troops suffered a crushing defeat. In the late 8th century, the Kannauj Triangle period started. The three major Indian dynasties – the northwestern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty and the eastern Indian Pala Empire – dominated India from the 8th to 10th centuries. During this period the northern part of Gujarat
13446-431: The city is a perfect ruin, its houses are nearly unoccupied and but for a new and substantial temple, erected to house the god of Somnath by that wonderful woman, Ahalya Bai, the wife of Holkar. He states that the site shows how the temple had been changed into a Muslim structure with arch, these sections had been reconstructed with "mutilated pieces of the temple's exterior" and "inverted Hindu images". Such modifications in
13608-671: The cracks had started to develop in the edifice of the Mughal Empire in the mid-17th century, the Marathas were consolidating their power in the west, Chatrapati Shivaji , the great Maratha ruler, attacked Surat in southern Gujarat twice first in 1664 and again in 1672. These attacks marked the entry of the Marathas into Gujarat. However, before the Maratha had made inroads into Gujarat, the Europeans had made their presence felt, led by
13770-520: The dilapidated Somnath temple to make it into a "Mohammedan sanctuary", states Burnes, is "proof of Mohammedan devastation" of this site. Burnes also summarized some of the mythologies he heard, the bitter communal sentiments and accusations, as well as the statements by garrisoned "Arabs of the Junagar [Junagadh] chief" about their victories in this "infidel land". The survey report of Captain Postans
13932-499: The domes, have evidently been added to the original building. A more detailed survey report of Somnath temple ruins was published in 1931 by Henry Cousens. Cousens states that the Somnath temple is dear to the Hindu consciousness, its history and lost splendor remembered by them, and no other temple in Western India is "so famous in the annals of Hinduism as the temple of Somanatha at Somanatha-Pattan". The Hindu pilgrims walk to
14094-511: The edges of the planes. The surfaces are heavily decorated with figures and "honeycomb" gavaksha decoration, the figures "characterized by lively poses and sharply cut faces and costumes". The Ajitanatha Temple was built under, and very probably by, King Kumarapala (r. 1143 – 1172 CE) of the Solanki/Chaulukya dynasty, who was the most favourable towards Jains of the dynasty. According to Jain sources he converted to Jainism towards
14256-741: The end of his life; at the least he was influenced by the religion. His reign marked the height of Jain power and influence; his son Ajayapala , something of a villain in Jain chronicles, was much less favourable, although there continued to be Jain ministers. Kumbharia Jain temples is a complex of five Jain temples in Kumbhariya, Banaskantha district built between 1062 - 1231 CE. The five temples are famous for their elaborate architecture. The Jain temples, Kumbhariya along with Dilwara temples , Girnar Jain temples and Taranga Jain temple are considered excellent examples of Chaulukyan architecture. Mahavira, Shantinatha, and Parshvanatha temples are some of
14418-745: The fame and reputation of illustrious Islamic scholars, Sufi-saints, merchants and intellectuals from all over the world: Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors , built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place ... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca , Bengal , Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu , Martaban , and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in
14580-418: The first of which forms the roof of the entrance, the second is the interior of the temple, the third was the sanctum sanctorum, wherein were deposited the riches of Hindi devotion. The two external domes are diminutive: the central one has an elevation of more than thirty feet, tapering to the summit in fourteen steps, and is about forty feet in diameter. It is perfect, but the images which have once adorned both
14742-576: The funds for the construction should be collected from the public, and the temple should not be funded by the state. Accordingly, The Somnath Trust was established to collect funds and oversee the construction of the temple. Munshi headed the Trust. Being the Civil Supplies minister in the Government of India, Munshi was keen to involve the Government of India in the reconstruction effort, but he
14904-487: The furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts. The conquest of the Kingdom of Gujarat marked a significant event of Akbar's reign. Being the major trade gateway and departure harbour of pilgrim ships to Mecca, it gave
15066-526: The gates in September 1842. A whole sepoy regiment, the 6th Jat Light Infantry , was detailed to carry the gates back to India in triumph. However, on arrival, they were found not to be of Gujarati or Indian design, and not of Sandalwood , but of Deodar wood (native to Ghazni) and therefore not authentic to Somnath. They were placed in the arsenal store-room of the Agra Fort where they still lie to
15228-598: The great emporia of the Indian Ocean that indeed: Cambay is one of the most beautiful cities as regards the artistic architecture of its houses and the construction of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who continually build their beautiful houses and wonderful mosques – an achievement in which they endeavor to surpass each other. Many of these "foreign merchants" were transient visitors, men of South Arabian and Persian Gulf ports, who migrated in and out of Cambay with
15390-465: The ground around the foundations of the shrine. Little now remains of the walls of the temple; they have been, in great measure, rebuilt and patched with rubble to convert the building into a mosque. The great dome, indeed the whole roof and the stumpy minars, one of which remains above the front entrance, are portions of the Muhammadan additions. [...] One fact alone shows that the temple was built on
15552-620: The height of the Adil Shahi dynasty . At the same time, Zoroastrian high priest Azar Kayvan who was a native of Fars , immigrated to Gujarat founding the Zoroastrian school of illuminationists which attracted key Shi'ite Muslim admirers of the Safavid philosophical revival from Isfahan . Early 14th-century Maghrebi adventurer, Ibn Batuta , who famously visited India with his entourage, recalls in his memoirs about Cambay, one of
15714-540: The idea of spreading Islamic influence. However, this narrative often comes from later chroniclers who presented Mahmud as a champion of Islam to enhance his image as a religious figure. While Mahmud’s raid on Somnath did involve religious symbolism, it’s essential to note that his primary motivation was likely economic and political. His actions were not necessarily driven by a need to impose Islam but rather to extend his influence and accumulate wealth, typical of rulers expanding empires in that era. Many Hindu texts provide
15876-461: The interior and exterior of the building are mutilated, and the black polished stones which formed its floor have been removed by the citizens for less pious purposes. Two marble slabs, with sentences from the Koran, and inscriptions regarding Mangrol Isa, point out where that Mohammedan worthy rests. They arc on the western side of the city, and the place is still frequented by the devout Moslem. Near it
16038-412: The kalaga moulding was an antarapatta , states Dhaky, but no information is available to determine its design or ornamentation. The surviving fragment of the kapotapali that was discovered suggests that at "intervals, it was decorated with contra-posed half thakaras, with large, elegant, and carefully shaped gagarakas in suspension graced the lower edge of the kapotapali", states Dhaky. The garbhagriha had
16200-478: The lake where an earlier Indian governor had built a dam. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain , there was an Indo-Greek defeat in Gujarat of Demetrius . In 16th century manuscripts, there is an apocryphal story of a merchant of King Gondophares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas . The incident of the cup-bearer torn apart by
16362-719: The large example at the Rajgadhi Timbo ("mound"), have been completely destroyed. The Solanki dynasty finally fell around 1244, replaced by the Hindu Vaghela dynasty for some decades before the Muslim Delhi Sultanate conquered the region. Temple building then largely ceased in the original areas of the style for a considerable time, although a trickle of repairs and additions to existing temples are recorded, and some small new buildings. However, Solanki rule came to be seen by Jains as something of
16524-487: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, historians and archaeologists of the colonial era actively studied the Somnath temple because its ruins showed a historic Hindu temple that was turning into an Islamic mosque. After India's independence, those ruins were demolished, and the present Somnath temple was reconstructed in the Māru-Gurjara style of Hindu temple architecture . The contemporary Somnath temple's reconstruction
16686-418: The main mandapas. But there are influences from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes, often fluted, over porches and second mandapas, "arches with petalled fringes, parapets of merlons ", and other features. The Polo Forest in Gujarat has groups of Hindu and Jain ruined temples of various dates, but mostly 15th century. The Jagdish Temple, Udaipur (completed 1651) is an example of a Hindu temple using
16848-408: The main temple with a curtain of shrines was to become a distinctive feature of the Jain temples of West India, still employed in some modern temples. The Ajitanatha Temple, the largest and earliest of the cluster of Taranga Jain temples , was constructed in 1161, and is a fine example of the style, which remains largely intact, and in religious use. The shikhara and the much lower superstructure over
17010-480: The mandapa are both among the "most complicated" in the style. The former begins with three rows of bhumija -style miniature towers in clusters, before turning to the sekhari style higher up, where the miniature towers are of varying lengths, and overlap. Over the mandapa, the lowest level continues the regular miniature tower clusters over the sanctuary, above which shallow pitched planes of roof are studded with miniature towers, with rows of beasts and urns along
17172-584: The manners and customs of the Portuguese ; yet do they regularly learn their manufactures and workmanship, being all very curious and desirous of learning. In fact, the Portuguese take and learn more from them than they from the Portuguese . Somnath temple Traditional Saiddhantika Non - Saiddhantika Somnath temple (IAST: somanātha) or Deo Patan , is a Hindu temple , located in Prabhas Patan , Veraval in Gujarat , India . It
17334-486: The most renowned temples in India. These five marble temples vary in size and architecture details, but every temple is surrounded by a protective walled courtyard with elaborate arched gateways. The Bhadreshwar Jain Temple , mostly constructed for a merchant in 1248, just at the end of the Solanki dynasty, is surrounded by the high walls of a curtain of subsidiary shrines, each with a shikhara in sekhari style, except for
17496-470: The mythology of Prabhasa in the Mahabharata , which it states to be "by the sea, near Dwaraka". This signifies an expanded context of pilgrimage as a "Vedic ritual equivalent", integrating Prabhasa that must have been already important as a tirtha site when the Vana Parva and Shalya Parva compilation was complete. The 5th century poem Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa mentions Somanatha-Prabhasa as
17658-552: The northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar , while its largest city is Ahmedabad . The Gujaratis are indigenous to the state and their language, Gujarati , is the state's official language. The state encompasses 23 sites of
17820-503: The northwest Indian subcontinent region – over regular intervals, though not continuously. The invasion of Somnath site in 1026 CE is also confirmed by other Islamic historians such as Gardizi, Ibn Zafir and Ibn al-Athir. However, two Persian sources – one by adh-Dhahabi and other by al-Yafi'i – state it as 1027 CE, which is likely incorrect and late by a year, according to Khan – a scholar known for his studies on Al-Biruni and other Persian historians. According to Al-Biruni: The location of
17982-498: The outside world had created the legacy of an international transoceanic empire which had a vast commercial network of permanent agents stationed at all the great port cities across the Indian Ocean . These networks extended to the Philippines in the east, East Africa in the west, and via maritime and the inland caravan route to Russia in the north. Tomé Pires , a Portuguese official at Malacca , wrote of conditions during
18144-544: The pavement is everywhere covered with heaps of stones and rubbish; the facings of the walls, capitals of the pillars, in short, every portion possessing anything approaching to ornament, having been defaced or removed, (if not by Mahmud, by those who subsequently converted this temple into its present semi-Mohammedan appearance). [...] Externally the whole of the buildings are most elaborately carved and ornamented with figures, single and in groups of various dimensions, Many of them appear to have been of some size; but so laboriously
18306-425: The ports of the Indian Ocean. Gujaratis, including Hindus and Muslims as well as the enterprising Parsi class of Zoroastrians , had been specialising in the organisation of overseas trade for many centuries, and had moved into various branches of commerce such as commodity trade , brokerage , money-changing , money-lending and banking . By the 17th century, Chavuse and Baghdadi Jews had assimilated into
18468-535: The present day. There was a debate in the House of Commons in London in 1843 on the question of the gates of the temple and Ellenbourough's role in the affair. After much crossfire between the British Government and the opposition, all of the facts as we know them were laid out. In the 19th century novel The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins , the diamond of the title is presumed to have been stolen from
18630-766: The reigns of Mahmud I and Mozaffar II: " Cambay stretches out two arms; with her right arm she reaches toward Aden and with the other towards Malacca" He also described Gujarat's active trade with Goa , the Deccan Plateau and the Malabar . His contemporary, Duarte Barbosa , describing Gujarat's maritime trade, recorded the import of horses from the Middle East and elephants from Malabar, and lists exports which included muslins, chintzes and silks, carnelian, ginger and other spices, aromatics, opium, indigo and other substances for dyeing, cereals and legumes. Persia
18792-486: The remainder of the roof terraced and supported by numerous pillars. There are three éntrances. The sides of the building face to the cardinal points, and the principal entrance appears to be on the eastern side. These doorways ave unusually high and wide, in the Pyramidal or Egyptian form, decreasing towards the top; they add much to the effect of the building. Internally, the whole presents a scene of complete destruction;
18954-480: The rhythm of the monsoons. But others were men with Arab or Persian patronyms whose families had settled in the town generations, even centuries earlier, intermarrying with Gujarati women, and assimilating everyday customs of the Hindu hinterland. The Age of Discovery heralded the dawn of pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance travel in search of alternative trade routes to " the East Indies ", moved by
19116-470: The river was nowhere to be seen when the Mahabharata was compiled and finalized, the Saraswati legend was modified. It vanishes into an underground river, then emerges as an underground river at holy sites for sangam (confluence) already popular with the Hindus. The Mahabharata then integrates the Saraswati legend of the Vedic lore with the Prabhasa tirtha , states Hiltebeitel. The critical editions of
19278-404: The ruins here and visit it along with their pilgrimage to Dwarka, Gujarat, though it has been reduced to a 19th-century site of gloom, full of "ruins and graves". His survey report states: The old temple of Somanatha is situated in the town, and stands upon the shore towards its eastern end, being separated from the sea by a heavily built retaining wall which prevents the former from washing away
19440-455: The sack of Somnath temple. According to Jamal Malik – a South Asian history and Islamic Studies scholar, "the destruction of Somnath temple, a well known place of pilgrimage in Gujarat in 1026, played a major role in creating Mahmud as an "icon of Islam", the sack of this temple became "a crucial topic in Persian stories of Islamic iconoclasm". Many Muslim historians and scholars in and after
19602-615: The scholar intellectual Abu Fazl Ghazaruni from Persia who tutored and adopted Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak , author of the Akbarnama . Later, a close alliance between the Ottoman Turks and Gujarati sultans to effectively safeguard Jeddah and the Red Sea trade from Portuguese imperialism , encouraged the existence of powerful Rumi elites within the kingdom who took the post of viziers in Gujarat keen to maintain ties with
19764-460: The sea. Everything of the most precious was brought there as offerings, and the temple was endowed with more than 10,000 villages. There is a river (the Ganges) which is held sacred, between which and Somnát the distance is 200 parasangs. They used to bring the water of this river to Somnát every day, and wash the temple with it. A thousand brahmans were employed in worshipping the idol and attending on
19926-405: The site in 1830, calling Somnath site as "far-famed temple and city". He wrote: The great temple of Somnath stands on a rising ground on the north-west side of Pattan, inside the walls, and is only separated by them from the sea. It may be scen from a distance of twenty-five miles. It is a massy stone building, evidently of some antiquity. Unlike Hindu temples gencrally, it consists of three domes,
20088-451: The site was so thoroughly destroyed by Muslim armies, starting in 1311, that there is little surviving that dates back before the 16th century. The temples are packed tightly together in a number of high-walled compounds called "tuks" or "tonks". Michell calls them "characteristic of the final phase of Western Indian temple architecture", with traditional shikharas, double storey porches, often on three or four sides, and miniature-urn roofs to
20250-649: The sixth Mughal Emperor, was born in Dahod , Gujarat. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal . At the time of his birth, his father, Shah Jahan, was then the Subahdar (governor) of Gujarat, and his grandfather, Jehangir , was the Mughal Emperor. Before he became emperor, Aurangzeb was made Subahdar of Gujarat subah as part of his training and was stationed at Ahmedabad. Aurangzeb had great love for his place of birth. In 1704, he wrote
20412-618: The social world of the Surat province, later on their descendants would give rise to the Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of Calcutta, and other influential Indian-Jewish figures who went on to play a philanthropical role in the commercial development of 19th-century British Crown Colony of Shanghai . Spearheaded by Khoja , Bohra , Bhatiya shahbandars and Moorish nakhudas who dominated sea navigation and shipping, Gujarat's transactions with
20574-611: The standards of the style, reaching a peak in the Luna Vasahi temple. The main buildings of the first three named are surrounded by "cloister" screens of devakulikā shrines, and are fairly plain on the outer walls of these; in the case of the Vimal Vasahi this screen was a later addition, around the time of the second temple. These three have an axis from the sanctuary through a closed, then an open mandapa to an open rangamandapa , or larger hall for dance or drama. Surrounding
20736-526: The style at a late date; in this case a commission of Jagat Singh I , ruler of Mewar . There was a considerable number of new Jain temples in the 19th century, as the Jain community continued to grow and prosper. Temples were built by wealthy Jains, often individually, or by community trusts. The large Hutheesing Jain Temple (1848) in Ahmedabad , Gujarat, was built by the Hutheesing family . It uses
20898-518: The sultans of Gujarat possessed ample means to sustain lavish patronage of religion and the arts, to build madrasas and ḵānaqāhs, and to provide douceurs for the literati, mainly poets and historians, whose presence and praise enhanced the fame of the dynasty. Even at the time of Tomé Pires ' travel to the East Indies in the early 16th century, Gujarati merchants had earned an international reputation for their commercial acumen and this encouraged
21060-507: The supporting columns allowing views in several directions inside the compound. Even the shikhara has balconies at three levels. The carving on the interior is in most areas as lavish as ever. The large group of Palitana temples on the Shatrunjaya hills in Gujarat are another very important Jain pilgrimage site, with temples numbering into the hundreds (most very small, and all but one Svetambara). Though many were founded much earlier,
21222-436: The surface is left unadorned." The main shikhara tower usually has many urushringa subsidiary spirelets on it, and two smaller side-entrances with porches are common in larger temples. Interiors are if anything even more lavishly decorated, with elaborate carving on most surfaces. In particular, Jain temples often have small low domes carved on the inside with a highly intricate rosette design. Another distinctive feature
21384-410: The temple and slaughtered many pilgrims and burnt the temple, and destroyed it. Henry Miers Elliot For Mahmud, wealth was a significant draw; the Somnath temple, known for its opulence, was a particularly lucrative target. The campaign had a secondary effect of asserting dominance and projecting the power of his empire. Some sources suggest that he justified these actions religiously, aligning them with
21546-534: The temple at Somnath and, according to the historian Romila Thapar , reflects the interest aroused in Britain by the gates. Her 2004 book on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple. Before independence , Veraval was part of the Junagadh State , whose ruler had acceded to Pakistan in 1947. India contested the accession and annexed the state after holding
21708-466: The temple, we now see, was built, portions of this older temple being apparently left in situ to form the heart and core of the later masonry. [...] For several reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the ruined temple, as it now stands, save for the Muhammadan additions, is a remnant of the temple built by Kumarapala, king of Gujarat, about AD 1169. The present temple is a Māru-Gurjara architecture (also called Chaulukya or Solanki style) temple. It has
21870-426: The top a 15th-century restoration. The five Dilwara Temples on Mount Abu are among the most famous Jain temples . The Vimal Vasahi is much the earliest, constructed by 1031, with the Luna Vasahi by 1230, and the others at intervals between 1459 and 1582. All are in a very white marble that adds greatly to their effect, and remain in use. The oldest and largest two have large amounts of intricate carving even by
22032-496: The total revenue of the whole Portuguese empire in Asia in 1586–87, when it was at its height. Indeed, when the British arrived on the coast of Gujarat, houses in Surat already had windows of Venetian glass imported from Constantinople through the Ottoman empire . In 1514, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa described the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Rander known otherwise as City of Mosques in Surat province, which gained
22194-593: The trade of gold , silver and spices . In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have discovered the Europe-to-India sea route which changed the course of history, thanks to Kutchi sailor Kanji Malam, who showed him the route from the East African coasts of Mozambique sailing onwards to Calicut off the Malabar coast in India. Later, the Gujarat Sultanate allied with
22356-432: The very musjids, which are here and there encountered in the town, have been raised by materials from the sacred edifices of the conquered, or, as it is said by the historians of Sindh, “the true believers turned the temples of the idol worshippers into places of prayer.” Old Pattan is to this day a Hindu city in all but its inhabitants—perhaps one of the most interesting historical spots in Western India. [...] Somnath assumed
22518-496: The visit of merchants from Cairo , Armenia , Abyssinia , Khorasan , Shiraz , Turkestan and Guilans from Aden and Hormuz. Pires noted in his Suma Orientale : These [people] are [like] Italians in their knowledge of and dealings in merchandise ... they are men who understand merchandise; they are so properly steeped in the sound and harmony of it, that the Gujaratees say that any offence connected with merchandise
22680-420: The visitors, and 500 damsels sung and danced at the door—all these were maintained upon the endowments of the temple. The edifice was built upon fifty-six pillars of teak, covered with lead. The shrine of the idol was dark, but was lighted by jewelled chandeliers of great value. Near it was a chain of gold weighing 200 mans. When a portion (watch) of the night closed, this chain used to be shaken like bells to rouse
22842-585: The west to Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan in the east. Al-Junaid, the successor of Qasim , finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh and established a secure base. The Arab rulers tried to expand their empire southeast, which culminated in the Caliphate campaigns in India fought in 730; they were defeated and expelled west of the Indus river, probably by a coalition of the Indian rulers Nagabhata I of
23004-499: The world. On the exteriors, the style of Māru-Gurjara architecture is distinguished from other North Indian temple styles of the period in "that the external walls of the temples have been structured by increasing numbers of projections and recesses, accommodating sharply carved statues in niches. These are normally positioned in superimposed registers, above the lower bands of moldings. The latter display continuous lines of horse riders, elephants, and kīrttimukhas . Hardly any segment of
23166-437: The world. In India there has been much construction of large temples and complexes, and the smaller diaspora communities have constructed buildings on a somewhat smaller scale. In both cases use of the Māru-Gurjara style is very common, although the thoroughness with which it is adopted varies greatly. Some buildings mix Māru-Gurjara elements with those of local temple styles and modern international ones. Generally, where there
23328-637: Was Marudesh while Gujarat was called Gurjaratra . The term "Māru-Gurjara" was coined by art and architectural historian Madhusudan Dhaky , who also coined the terms "Surāṣṭra", "Mahā-Māru", and "Mahā-Gurjara" to describe other historical styles of Western Indian architecture. The Māru-Gurjara style is a synthesis of the Mahā-Māru style of Marwar region in Rajasthan and the Mahā-Gurjara style of Gujarat . However, Hegewald suggests "This change in terminology appears to have been suggested first by A. Ghosh during
23490-570: Was a succession of various polities such as the Mauryan dynasty , Satavahana dynasty , Gupta Empire , Gurjara-Pratihara Empire, as well as regional ones such as the Western Satraps , the Kingdom of Valabhi , the Kingdom of Gujarat , the Sultanate of Gujarat and finally the Kingdom of Baroda . The early history of Gujarat includes the imperial grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered
23652-749: Was an early point of contact with the west, and the first British commercial outpost in India was in Gujarat. 17th-century French explorer François Pyrard de Laval , who is remembered for his 10-year sojourn in South Asia, bears witness in his account that the Gujaratis were always prepared to learn workmanship from the Portuguese, and in turn imparted skills to the Portuguese: I have never seen men of wit so fine and polished as are these Indians: they have nothing barbarous or savage about them, as we are apt to suppose. They are unwilling indeed to adopt
23814-402: Was an eclipse of the moon, and would then assemble there to the number of more than a hundred thousand. They believed that the souls of men used to meet there after separation from the body, and that the idol used to incorporate them at its pleasure in other bodies, in accordance with their doctrine of transmigration. The ebb and flow of the tide was considered to be the worship paid to the idol by
23976-551: Was captured by the Indian ruler Tailapa II of the Western Chalukya Empire . Zoroastrians from Greater Iran migrated to the western borders of India (Gujarat and Sindh ) during the 8th or 10th century, to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. The descendants of those Zoroastrian refugees came to be known as the Parsi . Subsequently, Lāṭa in southern Gujarat
24138-515: Was completed in 1140, ending a long period of construction. Two groups of smaller ruined temples of similar date are the two Rama Lakshamana temples, Baradia and the five Kiradu temples ; both have their lowest storeys fairly intact, and some of the Kiradu group retain part of their shikharas. The Rani ki vav ("Queen's Stepwell", probably 1063–83) is a very grand stepwell in Patan, Gujarat , once
24300-403: Was left in the foundation pit of the new Somnath temple that was rebuilt quickly after Mahmud left. The "quality of craftsmanship" in these fragments is "indeed high", the carvings of the lost temple were "rich and exquisite", states Dhaky. Further, a few pieces have an inscription fragment in the 10th-century characters – which suggests that this part of the temple or the entire temple was built in
24462-538: Was one of the main central areas of the Indus Valley civilisation, which is centred primarily in modern Pakistan . It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal , Dholavira and Gola Dhoro . The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to
24624-516: Was overruled by Nehru. The ruins were pulled down in October 1950. The mosque present at that site was shifted few kilometres away by using construction vehicles. The new structure was built by the traditional Somapuri builders of temples in Gujarat. On 11 May 1951, Rajendra Prasad , the President of India performed the installation ceremony for the temple at the invitation of Munshi. There
24786-421: Was published in 1846. He states: Pattan, and all the part of the country wherein it is situated, is now under a Mohamedan ruler, the Nawab of Junagadh, and the city itself offers the most curious specimen of any I have ever seen of its original Hindu character, preserved throughout its walls, gates, and buildings, despite Mohammedan innovations and a studied attempt to obliterate the traces of paganism ; even
24948-405: Was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya . Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta left an inscription (450 CE) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of
25110-451: Was ruled by the Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the Western Chalukya ruler Tailapa II . The Chaulukya dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Gujarat from 960 to 1243. Gujarat was a major center of Indian Ocean trade, and their capital at Anhilwara ( Patan ) was one of the largest cities in India, with a population estimated at 100,000 in the year 1000. After 1243, the Solankis lost control of Gujarat to their feudatories, of whom
25272-412: Was ruled by the northern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty and the southern part of Gujarat was ruled by the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty . However, the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach attest that the royal bloodline of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty of Dadda I, II and III (650–750) ruled south Gujarat. Southern Gujarat was ruled by the Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty until it
25434-409: Was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted Nalanda University . It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzang / I Tsing visited in 640 along the Silk Road . Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks and was familiar with other Western centers of civilisation through the end of
25596-523: Was started under the orders of the first Deputy Prime Minister of India, Vallabhbhai Patel after receiving approval for reconstruction from Mahatma Gandhi . The reconstruction was completed in May 1951, after Gandhi's death. The Somnath temple is located along the coastline in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It is about 400 kilometres (249 mi) southwest of Ahmedabad , 82 kilometres (51 mi) south of Junagadh – another major archaeological and pilgrimage site in Gujarat. It
25758-406: Was the destination for many of these commodities, and they were partly paid for in horses and pearls taken from Hormuz . The latter item, in particular, led Sultan Sikandar Lodi of Delhi , according to Ali-Muhammad Khan, author of the Mirat-i-Ahmadi, to complain that the support of the throne of Delhi is wheat and barley but the foundation of the realm of Gujarat is coral and pearls Hence,
25920-456: Was the harbor for seafaring people and a station for those who went to and fro between Sufala in the country of Zanj (east Africa) and China". Combined with its repute as an eminent pilgrimage site, its location was well known to the kingdoms within the Indian subcontinent. Literature and epigraphical evidence suggest that the medieval-era Veraval port was also actively trading with the Middle East and Southeast Asia. This brought wealth and fame to
26082-408: Was the work of mutilation carried on here, that of the larger figures scarcely a trunk has been left, whilst few even of the most minute remain uninjured. The western side is the most perfect: here the pillars and ornaments are in excellent preservation. The front entrance is ornamented with a portico, and surmounted by two slender minarets ornaments so much in the Mohammedan style, that they, as well as
26244-422: Was then the premier Arab power in the Middle East, remained friendly over the next century and the Egyptian scholar, Badruddin-ad-Damamimi , spent several years in Gujarat in the shade of the Sultan before proceeding to the Bahmani Sultanate on the Deccan Plateau. Shah e Alam , a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti order who was the descendant of Makhdoom Jahaniyan Jahangasht from Bukhara , soon arrived in
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