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Soma appeases Shiva in order to have a curse put on him removed and then builds a temple to his benefactor in gratitude.
Somnath is one of the Dwadasa Jyotirlingas. It is located on the western coast of India right next to the sea. Due south from the temple there is no land between the temple and Antarctica. What is amazing is that there is an ancient pole that inscribes this fact in Sanskrit, implying that the ancients knew of this. The TempleThe temple is dedicated to Shiva, as the Lord of the Moon because he protected Soma, the Moon demi-God, from a curse. The existing temple has been built in the Chalukya style of temple architecture. The temple consists of three sections, namely the garbhagriha, sabhamandap and nrityamandap. The sabhamandap is an area where the congregation gathered during worship and the nrityamandap is an area where dance performances were held in earlier periods. The spire of the temple is 150 feet high and the flagpole is 27 feet tall and 1 foot in circumference. The Somnath temple has been destroyed several times and has had to be rebuilt from scratch. Each time the community of architects who designed and constructed the temple were the Sompura shilpakar Brahmins. Shilpakar literally translates as sculptor and the “Soma” being common to Somnath and Sompura is no coincidence. The first legendary temple was built by Soma the Moon demi-God and the Sompura Brahmins are believed to be descended from Soma. Prabha Shankar Sompura designed the present temple and his descendents are still building temples in India. The most important day of worship at Somnath is the full moon day in the month of Kartik. On this day the moon enters the Krittika or the Orion constellation. At Somnath the moon rises exactly in front of the temple and is exactly over the spire at midnight as if the moon has himself come to worship Shiva. This reflects one of the greatest aspects of Hindu temple architecture, in which attention has been given to relevant natural phenomenon and to the legends about the temple. An all-night celebration is held here on the occasion, which attracts millions of devotees to the shrine. The LegendThe temple of Somnath finds mention in ancient scriptures like the Riga Veda, Skanda Purana, Srimad Bhagavata and Shiva Purana. The legend of Somanath is centered around Soma. Soma had married 27 daughters of Daksha, who were the 27 constellations. Daksha had instructed Soma to treat all his daughters equally so that none felt left out. However Soma was infatuated by Rohini alone and lavished all his attention on her. This enraged Daksha, who put a curse on Soma that he will wane into nothingness. The Devas pleaded with Daksha that the disappearance of Soma will create havoc in the natural order. Daksha then told Soma to bathe at the mouth of the river Saraswati and seek Shiva’s intervention in the curse. Soma did that and Shiva reduced the curse to periodic waning and waxing. Brahma then advised Soma to construct a temple to Shiva where he had prayed. This temple came to be known as Somnath. Since the moon regained his light here, the place was thereafter called Prabhasa meaning “light”. According to legend Soma built the temple with gold. Ravana, an ardent devotee of Shiva, later built the temple with silver. Krishna, when he was the King of Dwarka, had the temple built with sandalwood. Please check my course on Hindu Mythology Please check my articles on Mythology from India
The copyright of the article Somnath Jyotirlinga in Hinduism is owned by Harsh Nevatia. Permission to republish Somnath Jyotirlinga in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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