Somnath Temple Swabhiman Parv: Celebrating 1,000 Years Of Worship & Unbroken Faith

Last Updated:January 05, 2026, 2:08 PM IST

#SomnathSwabhimanParv: From Mahmud of Ghazni to Aurangzeb, the shrine was targeted time and again

PM Narendra Modi during his earlier visits to the Somnath Temple in Gujarat. (narendramodi.in)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Somnath Temple in Gujarat on January 11, marking year-long activities of #SomnathSwabhimanParv. Several spiritual and social activities will be held in Somnath from January 8-11.

The Somnath Temple is not merely a structure of stone or a place of worship; it is a living proclamation of India’s civilizational soul, ancient beyond memory, repeatedly assaulted, yet never conquered in spirit.

From Mahmud of Ghazni to Aurangzeb, the shrine was targeted time and again, not simply to destroy a temple, but to shatter the civilizational confidence of Hindu society.

The year 2026 holds a dual, profound significance for Bharat. It marks exactly one millennium since the first major invasion of the shrine in 1026 AD, and simultaneously commemorates the 75th anniversary, the Platinum Jubilee, of its modern Pran Pratishtha in 1951. This convergence of dates highlights a thousand-year journey from the depths of destruction to the heights of national resurgence.

PM Modi’s op-ed on this marks this moment in history even as the temple has been resurrected as glorious as ever. In a post on X, PM wrote: “2026 marks 1000 years since the first attack on Somnath took place. Despite repeated attacks subsequently, Somnath stands tall! This is because Somnath’s story is about the unbreakable courage of countless children of Bharat Mata who protected our culture and civilisation…”

Repeated Destruction, Repeated Resurrection

The story of the Somnath temple is not merely that of a temple, but of a civilisation’s relationship with time, faith, and memory. In K. M. Munshi’s seminal work “Somanatha: The Shrine Eternal”, Somnath is presented as a shrine as ancient as creation itself. But the same account records a grim but revealing pattern. Somnath thus stands unique in world history: a temple that has been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times over nearly a millennium, without the faith it represents ever being extinguished. K.M. Munshi, a freedom fighter, was incidentally Agriculture Minister in the Nehru Cabinet.

In Somnath: The Shrine Eternal, K. M. Munshi records that Mahmud of Ghazni began his march towards Somnath on 18 October 1025 and, approximately 80 days later, on 6 January 1026, attacked the fortified temple town. Contemporary accounts cited by Munshi estimate that nearly 50,000 defenders lost their lives while protecting the shrine. Mahmud subsequently plundered the temple and desecrated the sanctum, breaking the linga into pieces.

• In 1299 AD, Alauddin Khilji’s general Alaf Khan again destroyed the shrine, carrying fragments to Delhi. Once more, Hindu rulers rebuilt it.
• In 1394, Muzaffar Khan, a governor of Gujarat, again destroyed the temple. Some sort of shrine must have been built again. In 1459 AD, Mahmud Begda or Muzaffar II again desecrated the Somnath temple.
• Till 1669 AD, the temple nevertheless continued to function as a sacred shrine of Hindus, when Aurangzeb ordered its demolition along with other Hindu shrines in the country. In 1702 AD, Aurangzeb ordered the Somanatha temple to be destroyed beyond repair. In 1706 AD, the shrine was converted into a mosque on the order of Aurangzeb.
• Queen Ahilyabai Holkar, recognising the sacred continuity, built a new temple nearby in 1783. To save it from destruction, the Linga was placed in a secret underground shrine immediately below the usual upper one.

This is the blood-stained chronicle of Somnath, centuries marked by destruction and renewal, through which the temple comes to embody the resurrection of Bharat itself. While the invaders who sought Somnath’s end have now become mere footnotes in history, the glory of the shrine continues to grow.

Observations of Al-Biruni

Al-Biruni, the eleventh-century Persian scholar who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni to India, remained in the subcontinent for nearly thirteen years. During this period, he composed his seminal work Kitab al-Hind, a systematic and empathetic account of Indian society, religion, science, and culture based on direct observation.

In Kitab al-Hind, Al-Biruni also records some of the more egregious episodes of plunder carried out by Mahmud of Ghazni, particularly at Mathura and Somnath. He writes that Mahmud “utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, created a hatred of Muslims among the locals, and caused the Hindu sciences to retreat far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, to places where our hands cannot yet reach.”

Al-Biruni further describes the extraordinary wealth of the Somnath temple: its golden spires, jewel-encrusted idols, and treasuries filled with offerings from pilgrims and rulers alike. He portrays Somnath not merely as a place of worship but as a major cultural and economic centre, home to scholars, artists, musicians, dancers, and artisans and as a crucial node in maritime trade linking India to East Africa and China.

Somnath’s Enduring Message

Swami Vivekananda captured this essence perfectly during his visit in the 1890s, noting how these temples bear the marks of a hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually springing up from the ruins, rejuvenated and strong.

Swami Vivekananda captured Somnath’s essence with clarity when he visited Somnath in the 1890s. He said, “Some of these old temples of Southern India and those like Somnâth of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into the history of the race than any amount of books.”

According to Swami Vivekananda, Somnath is not about the past alone, as he said, “Mark how these temples [like Somnath of Gujarat] bear the marks of a hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually destroyed and continually springing up out of the ruins, rejuvenated and strong as ever!”

Somnath in Modern Indian History: Efforts of Sardar Patel

The story of Somnath does not end in medieval history; it extends powerfully into modern Indian history. After independence, the reconstruction of Somnath became a matter of national conscience.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a decisive and historic role. On 13 November 1947, Sardar Patel announced the decision to reconstruct the Somnath Temple, seeing it not as sectarian revivalism but as civilizational healing after centuries of humiliation.

KM Munshi stood firmly with Patel. Munshi meticulously documented Somnath’s history and championed its reconstruction, emphasising that: “no temple of this scale and design had been constructed in India for nearly 800 years.”

Nehru’s Opposition to Revival of Somnath Mandir

However, this national resurgence was not without opposition. In a revealing episode of post-independence India, PM Nehru opposed the participation of President Dr. Rajendra Prasad in the temple’s inauguration in 1951.

Right before the Somnath temple’s inauguration in 1951, Nehru wrote to President Rajendra Prasad and strongly opposed his participation. He wrote, “I confess that I do not like the idea of your associating yourself with the spectacular opening of the Somnath Temple.”

In the early months of 1951, just weeks before the temple inauguration, K.M. Munshi recorded that Nehru directly told him: “I don’t like your trying to restore Somnath. It is Hindu revivalism.”

In another letter dated 1 August 1951 to the Chief Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru said that “the inauguration of Somnath temple has created a very bad impression abroad about India.”

There is yet another letter in this series that clearly exposes how deeply uncomfortable Jawaharlal Nehru was to stop or dilute the historic ceremonies at the Somnath Temple. Nehru was clearly unhappy with the very idea of Somnath being rebuilt and inaugurated with grandeur.

In a letter to R. R. Diwakar, his discomfort is unmistakable. He wrote that he was “rather worried about the ceremonies that are going to take place at Somnath,” and most tellingly, he even sought to censor national pride, instructing that radio broadcasts should “tone down” the descriptions of what happened at Somnath.

His concern was not the sentiments of millions of Hindus, but how India’s civilizational resurgence might be perceived by foreign audiences—an attitude that many see as dismissive of India’s own historical and spiritual legacy.

Despite this opposition, President Rajendra Prasad went ahead with the inauguration, asserting that honouring a civilization’s heritage did not violate secularism but strengthened national self-respect.

The Shrine Eternal and the Spirit Immortal

Somnath stands today not merely as a reconstructed temple, but as a civilizational statement etched in stone and faith.

Each destruction was answered not with silence, but with renewal; each fall became the foundation of a rise. In this unbroken cycle of ruin and resurrection lies Somnath’s true greatness.

The story of Somnath reveals a deeper truth about India itself, that civilizations rooted in spiritual conviction cannot be extinguished by force.

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