Disclaimer: Copyright infringement not intended.

Context

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new Circuit House at Somnath today.

About

• The Somnath temple (also known as the Deo Patan) located in Veraval in Saurashtra on the western coast of Gujarat, is the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva.
• As documented by J. Gordon Melton, the first Shiva temple at Somnath is said to have been built at some unknown time in the past.
• The second temple is said to have been built at the same site by the "Yadava kings" of Vallabhi around 649 CE.
• The Gurjara-Pratihara king Nagabhata II constructed the third temple in 815 CE, a large structure of red sandstone.
• The present temple was reconstructed in the Chaulukya style of Hindu temple architectureand completed in 1951.
• Presently the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is the chairman of Somnath Mandir trust.

About Jyotirlingam

• A Jyotirlinga or Jyotirlingam, is a devotional representation of the Hindu god Shiva.
• There are 64 original Jyotirlinga shrines in India and Nepal, 12 of which are most sacred and they are called the Maha Jyotirlingam.
• Out of 12 Jyotirlingas, the southernmost of these is located at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu while the northernmost is located in the Himalayas at Kedarnath in Uttarkhand.

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1791158

Download PDF