Story of the first Jyotirlinga Shri Somnath

Shri Somnath Jyotirlinga, whose mere visit removes all the troubles, is one of our twelve Jyotirlingas. Every year thousands of devotees come from miles away to visit him.

In today’s blog, we will tell you an interesting story related to the origin of Somnath Jyotirling, so what are you waiting for, stay with us till the end of this blog.

This amazing Jyotirlinga of Lord Shiva is located in Saurashtra district of Gujarat. It is said that Prajapati Daksh had 27 daughters. He married all his daughters to Moon. Moon loved all his wives but he had immense love only for Rohini. All the wives were angry with his behaviour. All of them reach the place of their father Prajapati Daksh to solve their problems. Prajapati Daksh gets very angry after hearing this and calls Moon and tries to make him understand but Moon had no interest in Rohini. On this, the very angry Prajapati Daksh cursed the moon to become dark and said that the beauty of which you are proud will go away from you every day.

This curse given by Daksh started coming true after some time. Darkness started spreading all around the earth and the size of the moon was decreasing day by day. For the solution of this terrible curse, he went to Brahma Ji. Brahma Ji asked him to go to Devadhidev Mahadev. To get the blessings of Mahadev, Moon built a Shivalinga and worshiped before it. Pleased with his worship, Lord Shiva appeared and gave infinite donations to the moon and said, Hey! During the Krishna Paksha of the Moon, your size will continuously decrease but during the Shukla Paksha you will gradually regain your size and will illuminate this world with your full brilliance. Due to this inexhaustible donation of Lord Shiva, the Moon got life and the curse of Prajapati Daksh was also honoured. Later, Moon prayed to Lord Shiva and Mother Parvati that they should always reside here in the form of this Jyotirlinga and like me, they should bless their many devotees by liberating them from their sufferings. With this request of Moon, Shiva made that place his residence in the form of Jyotirlinga. Since one name of Moon is Som and he considered Lord Shiva as his Nath, hence this Jyotirlinga was named Somnath. The description of this Jyotirlinga is found in our religious texts Shiv Purana, Shrimad Bhagwat Purana, Skanda Purana and Mahabharata, which makes it clear that this Jyotirlinga is very ancient.
Among the four Vedas, the description of this Jyotirlinga is found only in the Rig Veda. It is said that Moon himself had built this temple with gold.

Main events/key points –

  1. In the seventh century, the Maitrak kings of Pallavi rebuilt this temple, but in the eighth century, this temple of Somnath faced destruction.
  2. Once the Arabic governor Junaid sent his entire army to demolish this temple. Arab traveler Alberuni has mentioned this in the context of his travelogue written during his visit to India.
    3. Mahmud Ghaznavi, a cruel ruler of the Ghaznavi dynasty of Central Afghanistan, attacked the temple of Somnath with his army of 5000 and looted the immense wealth kept in the temple and took it to Afghanistan. While leaving, he also took the doors of the temple with him. Thousands of devotees were present in the temple when he came to loot the temple. He had them all killed. Ghazni is known for its expansion into eastern Iran lands.
  • Ghazni attacked India 17 times.
    Later, King Bhima of Gujarat and King Bhoj of Malwa rebuilt the temple.
  1. In 1297 AD, Delhi Sultanate was ruled by Alauddin Khilji. During his reign the Mughals attacked Somnath. Alauddin had captured entire Gujarat at that time.
    Somnath temple was demolished for the fifth time
  2. Aurangzeb again attacked the temple in 1706 AD.
  3. On 1 May 1950 AD, King Digvijay Singh of Saurashtra again laid the foundation of the temple.
  4. On May 11, 1951, the country’s first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad established Shivalinga in the temple. This temple was completed in 1962 and the credit for it is given to the Iron Man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
  5. This temple is divided into three parts: 1.Garbha Graha 2.Sabha Mandap 3.Nritya Mandap
  6. A light show is done in this temple for 1 hour in the evening. In which the construction history of the temple is depicted in a very amazing way.
  7. In Somnath itself we can see the Triveni Sangam, where the great confluence of Saraswati, Hiran and Kapila rivers takes place. In this Sangam, devotees purify their bodies and proceed for the visit of Somnath. It is said that bathing in Triveni frees you from all sins.
  8. In Somnath itself, a fowler had shot an arrow at the feet of Lord Shri Krishna. This place is also known as Prabhas Tirtha.

So this was the story of Shri Somnath Jyotirlinga , whose mere visit removes all the troubles and makes life happy.
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2 responses to “Story of the first Jyotirlinga Shri Somnath”

  1. Aditya Gupta Avatar
    Aditya Gupta

    Thanks readers station
    I think this is a Great learning platform that I have seen

    1. readerss Avatar

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