Properly speaking, three separate things are lumped together as Somnath:  (1) The Port, properly called Verawal, on a beautiful little bay; (2) the City of Deva-Pattan, Somnath-Pattan, or Prabhas, occupying a prominence on the south side of the bay, having a massive wall and towers, and many traces of ancient Hindu workmanship, though the vast multitude of tombs around shows the existence of a large Mussulman population at some time; and among these are dates nearly as old as our Traveller’s visit; (3) The famous Temple (or, strictly speaking, the object of worship in that Temple) crowning a projecting rock at the south-west angle of the city, and close to the walls.  Portions of columns and sculptured fragments strew the soil around.

Notwithstanding the famous story of Mahmud and the image stuffed with jewels, there is little doubt that the idol really termed Somnath (Moon’s Lord) was nothing but a huge columnar emblem of Mahadeo.  Hindu authorities mention it as one of the twelve most famous emblems of that kind over India, and Ibn Asir’s account, the oldest extant narrative of Mahmud’s expedition, is to the same effect.  Every day it was washed with water newly brought from the Ganges.  Mahmud broke it to pieces, and with a fragment a step was made at the entrance of the Jami’ Mosque at Ghazni.

The temples and idols of Pattan underwent a second visitation at the hands of Alauddin’s forces a few years after Polo’s visit (1300),[1] and this seems in great measure to have wiped out the memory of Mahmud.  The temple, as it now stands deserted, bears evident tokens of having been converted into a mosque.  A good deal of old and remarkable architecture remains, but mixed with Moslem work, and no part of the building as it stands is believed to be a survival from the time of Mahmud; though part may belong to a reconstruction which was carried out by Raja Bhima Deva of Anhilwara about twenty-five years after Mahmud’s invasion.  It is remarkable that Ibn Asir speaks of the temple plundered by Mahmud as “built upon 56 pillars of teak-wood covered with lead.”  Is it possible that it was a wooden building?

In connection with this brief chapter on Somnath we present a faithful representation of those Gates which Lord Ellenborough rendered so celebrated in connection with that name, when he caused them to be removed from the Tomb of Mahmud, on the retirement of our troops from Kabul in 1842.  His intention, as announced in that once famous paean of his, was to have them carried solemnly to Guzerat, and there restored to the (long desecrated) temple.  Calmer reflection prevailed, and the Gates were consigned to the Fort of Agra, where they still remain.