The nearest airport, in Keshod, about sixty kilometers away, has daily flights from Mumbai.
A train from Ahmedabad takes about twelve hours and from Mumbai about eighteen hours.
There are buses to Somnath from all over Gujarat. Dwarka is seven hours by bus.
Where to Stay
Somnath is a small town with basic rooms available in a few hotels. Visitors usually stay in nearby Veraval.
“Sukadeva Gosvami said: Then Lord Brahma arrived at Prabhasa along with Lord Siva and his consort, the sages, the Prajapatis, and all the demigods, headed by Indra. The forefathers, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Vidyadharas, and great serpents also came, along with the Caranas, Yaksas, Raksasas, Kinnaras, Apsaras, and relatives of Garuda, greatly eager to witness the departure of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As they were coming, all these personalities variously chanted and glorified the birth and activities of Lord Sauri [Krishna].
“O King, crowding the sky with their many airplanes, they showered down flowers with great devotion. Seeing before Him Brahma [the grandfather of the universe] and the other demigods [who are all His personal and powerful expansions], the Almighty Lord closed His lotus eyes, fixing His mind within Himself, the Supreme Personality of Godhead”.
“Without employing the mystic agneyi meditation to burn up His transcendental body, which is the all-attractive resting place of all the worlds and the object of all the worlds and the object of all contemplation and meditation, Lord Krishna entered into His own abode”.
“As soon as Lord Sri Krishna left the earth, Truth, Religion, Faithfulness, Glory, and Beauty, immediately followed Him. Kettledrums resounded in the heavens and flowers showered from the sky”.
“Most of the demigods and other higher beings led by Brahma could not see Lord Krishna as He was entering His own abode, since He did not reveal His movements. But some of them did catch sight of Him, and they were extremely amazed”.
“Just as ordinary men cannot ascertain the path of a lightning bolt as it leaves a cloud, the demigods could not trace out the movements of Lord Krishna as He returned to His abode”.
“A few of the demigods, however notably Lord Brahma and Lord Siva could ascertain how the Lord’s mystic power was working, and thus they became astonished. All the demigods praised the Lord’s mystic power and then returned to their own planets”.
“My dear King, you should understand that the Supreme Lord’s appearance and disappearance, which resemble those of embodied conditioned souls, are actually a show enacted by His illusory energy, just like the performance of an actor. After creating this universe He enters into it, plays within it for some time, and at last winds it up. Then the Lord remains situated in His own transcendental glory, having ceased from the functions of cosmic manifestation.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.31.1-11)
Unfortunately, nowadays some people and some tourist publications try to diminish Lord Krishna’s glories by treating His disappearance pastimes like the activities of an ordinary human being and using phrases like “breathed his last” and “renounced his mortal human form.” By such disinformation, they misguide sincere pilgrims to Somnath. Guided by pure devotees like Srila Prabhupada, we should value and glorify the Lord’s departing pastimes, which are as inconceivably wonderful as all His other acts.
er acts.
The Someshwar Mahadev temple stands tall among the temples of India. The construction of the present temple in Junagadh district began in 1947. It is the seventh temple built to commemorate the glory of Lord Somnath who is said to have known as Bhairaveshwar in the Satya Yuga, Shravanikeshwar in Treta Yuga and Shrigaleshwar in Dwapar Yuga.
In AD 1026, Mahmud of Ghazni first looted the temple, and then came Afzal Khan, the commander of Ala-ud-din Khilji and later Aurangzeb. It is said that the temple was looted and destroyed as many as seventeen times.
The following extract is from “Wonders of Things Created, and marvels of Things Existing” by Asaru-L- Bilad, a 13th century Arab geographer. It contains the following description of Somnath temple and its destruction: The following is a long quotation:
“Somnath, celebrated city of India, situated on the shore of the sea, and washed by its waves. Among the wonders of that place was the temple in which was placed the deity called Somnath. This deity 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 honor among the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with amazement, whether he was a Musulman or an infidel. The Hindus used to go on pilgrimage to it whenever there was an eclipse of the moon, and more than a hundred thousand would then assemble there. They believed that the souls of men used to meet there after separation from the body, and that the deity 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 deity by the sea. The most precious of everything 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. They used to bring the water of this river to Somnath every day, and wash the temple with it. A thousand brahmins were employed in worshipping the deity and attending on 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 deity was dark but was lighted by jewelled chandeliers of great value. “When the Sultan Yaminu-d Daula Mahmud Bin Subuktigin went to wage religious war against India, he made great efforts to capture and destroy Somnath, in the hope that the Hindus would then become Muhammadans. He arrived there in the middle of Zi-l k’ada, 416 A.H. (December, 1025 A.D.). “The king looked upon the deity with wonder, and gave orders for the seizing of the spoil, and the appropriation of the treasures. There were many deities of gold and silver and vessels set with jewels, all of which had been sent there by the greatest personages in India. The value of the things found in the temples of the deities exceeded twenty thousand thousand dinars.
(Elliot’s footnote: The enormous treasures found at Somnath have been a theme of wonder for all who have written on that conquest.) “When the king asked his companions what they had to say about the marvel of the deity, and of its staying in the air without prop or support, several maintained that it was upheld by some hidden support. The king directed a person to go and feel all around and above and below it with a spear, which he did, but met with no obstacle. One of the attendants then stated his opinion that the canopy was made of loadstone, and the deity of iron, and that the ingenious builder had skillfully contrived that the magnet should not exercise a greater force on anyone side-hence the deity was suspended in the middle. Some coincided, others differed. Permission was obtained from the Sultan to remove some stones from the top of the canopy to settle the point. When two stones were removed from the summit the deity swerved on one side, when more were taken away it inclined still further, until at last it rested on the ground.”
Restoration of temple after Independence : Before Independence, Prabhas Pattan was part of the Junagarh State, ruled by the Nawab of Junagarh. On the eve of Independence the Nawab announced the accession of Junagarh, which had over 80% Hindu population, to Pakistan. The people of Junagarh rose in revolt and set up a parallel government under Gandhian leader and freedom fighter, Shri Samaldas Gandhi. The Nawab, unable to resist the popular pressure, bowed out and escaped to Pakistan. The provincial government under Samaldas Gandhi formally asked Government of India to take over. The Deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel came to Junagadh on November 12, 1947 to direct the occupation of the state by the Indian army and at the same time ordered the reconstruction of the Somanath temple.
When Sardar Patel, K M Munshi and other leaders of the Congress went to Gandhiji with the proposal of reconstructing the Somnath temple, Gandhiji blessed the move, but suggested that the funds for the construction should be collected from the public and the temple should not be funded by the state. He expressed that he was proud to associate himself to the project of renovation of the temple. But soon both Gandhiji and Sardar Patel died and the task of reconstruction of the temple was now continued under the leadership of K M Munshi, who was the Minister for Food and Civil, supplies in the Nehru Government.
The ruins were pulled down in October 1950 and the mosque was moved to a different location. In May 1951, Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India, invited by K M Munshi, performed the installation ceremony for the temple Rajendra Prasad said in his address “The Somnath temple signifies that the power of reconstruction is always greater than the power of destructon”
This episode created a serious rift between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw in movement for reconstruction of the temple an attempt at Hindu revivalism and the President Rajendra Prasad and Union Minister K M Munshi, saw in its reconstruction, the fruits of freedom and the reversal of injustice done to Hindus.
Architecture: The Present temple, Kailash Mahameru Prasada, is built in the Chalukya style of temple architecture and reflects the skill of the Sompuras, Gujarat’s master masons. The temple is situated at such a place that there is no land in between from Somnath seashore to Antarctica. Such an inscription in Sanskrit is found on the ARROW-PILLAR erected on the sea-protection wall at the Somnath Temple. The Darshani Gates of the Golden Temple in Amritsar are the Somnath Temple Gates, which were brought back by the army of the mighty Sikh King Maharaja Ranjit Singh from Afghanistan.
After an hour of country riding from Nagpur railway station by vehicle, one arrives at the foothills of Ramtek or Ramgiri.
Riding through the narrow lanes of merchants and farm animals, one can drive on the twisting road up the hill to the peak of Rama Giri. One can also walk through the steps on the mountain.
As the last curve of the road widened to the top, one can find standing before the steep rock wall of Rama Giri fort. This fort was built several centuries ago by kings of the Bhonsle clan. Rama Giri was chosen as the fort’s site for two reasons: (1) strategically, the hill offers a 360-degree view of the surrounding area, which it was the kings’ duty to protect, and (2) Vedic kings, even as late as the eighteenth century, were impelled by their burning religious convictions to guard holy areas.
In 1827, however, after the Bhonsle warriors suffered defeat at the hands of British invaders at the Battle of Sitalbuldi, their reign over the area rapidly deteriorated. Today the fort with its old tanks and temples is a protected monument, a historical oddity frozen in time.
1) The huge, rare deity of Lord Visnu-Varaha:
Overlooking the valley and the fort, this is one of rarest giant Varaha deities weighing several tons. There are two Varaha temples in Mathura, ancient ones visited by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as documented by “the king of poets” Krishnadasa Kaviraja in his most inspiring Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. There is also a beautiful white marble deity of Lord Varaha worshiped in a fine temple along the shores of Pushkar Lake in Rajasthan. But the only other deity of Lord Varaha of this immense size is the svayam-bhu (“self-manifested”) Sri Visnu-Varahaji of Majholi, Madhya Pradesh.
2) The ashram of Agastya Muni.:
Lavishly preserved in marble and carefully maintained by a group of devoted sadhus, the hermitage has been developed as a pilgrims’ destination of much importance. Even the yajna-sala, the holy place of fire sacrifice where the rsi received Lord Rama, has been continuously maintained since Treta-yuga. An iron door has been installed over Agastya’s deep cave of meditation; only select yogis are allowed entrance into the chamber, called Hatiphor. The ashram’s astute crew of ascetics display extreme care in the upkeep and worship of Saint Agastya’s shrine. Their devotion reveals that they have correctly understood the place’s Puranic significance.
Beyond Agastya Muni’s peaceful cave is a large group of temples, the first of which is dedicated to Laksmana, who led the way to Rama Giri, announcing to the sages the arrival of his brother and sister-in-law. This explains why the Laksmana Mandir is first. The other temples are separately dedicated to Lord Rama, Goddess Sita, and Bhakta Hanuman.
3) The Deities in the Main Temple:
The local history of the Deities is noteworthy. In 1736 King Raghu Bhonsle visited Rama Giri only to discover that just the padukas or wooden sandals of Lord Rama were being worshiped. The deities were no longer present. The king vowed to commission Jaipur deities for the temple. But once the sacred murtis were prepared for temple installation prana-pratistha the king had a dream in which Lord Rama told him to search under the waters of the River Sur a few miles north. Finally, in 1753, the original deities were discovered and re-installed atop Rama Giri amidst much festivity and celebration. The Jaipur deities are privately cared for in a reserved area.
4) Ambala Kund:
This lake below the hill is said to have been named for King Amba, who was cured of a terrible disease after his bath in these waters, which originate from an underground river called Patala Ganga.In the eighteenth century, King Raghu Bhonsle had the lake and many of the shore temples renovated with fine stone work. These temples include those of Jagannatha, Pancamukhi Mahadeva (“five-faced Siva”), and Surya Narayana (the Sun incarnation of Visnu).
NOTE: Devotee-pilgrims who would like to visit Ramtek and Rama Giri may make arrangements with the devotees at ISKCON Nagpur’s SriSriRadha-Madhava Temple.
Location :
The temple is located on the Ramgiri Hill situated in Ramtek, which is 42 km northeast of Nagpur city, Maharashtra. One can travel by car up to the entrance of the temple on the hill.