Somnath Temple is illustrious for various reason and has an important place historically, religiously and culturally for Hindus,especially Brahmins. I am presenting my arguments in support of its significance.
It all started, when we visited Tirupathi & kalahasti last year. My son (aged 5 then) saw richness of 'Venkateshwara' and magnanimous, but old 'Kalahasti' temple. When we had time to relax in kalahasti, he asked me to explain various stories depicted as photos there. A question suddenly sprang up in his mind. Question was, Is Ishwara the supreme or Vishnu supreme? Ishwara has 3rd Eye, but Vishnu has the ultimate weapon 'sudharshana chakra'? If there is a fight between them, who will win? He wants to know, as his mind wants to settle with one supreme, and didn't want confusions. His logic was, if he takes the side of the powerful, why worry about other gods? As I have to answer this difficult question, I figured out, it is indeed confusing. To settle the matter, I decided to know the facts myself first, before explaining this to my son. My exploration has opened a plethora of information, which I am sharing with you.
We Hindu, take 'Veda' as the base. It is established that, Rigveda is older than 5000 years. When we peek in to it, we find that, each and every sloka of rigveda is in-fact dedicated to a god. So, multiple gods are inherent from the beginning. Question is why did they have multiple god? If we analyze carefully, Rig veda has god names like, Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Mitra, Rudra etc. It states that, the supreme is 'Brahma'. As it was difficult to see the identity, 'Brahma', it drew attention to various manifestation of 'Brahma', like Vayu (air), Varuna 'water', Indra (rain) etc. It is basically saying, see Brahma, in identities that exhibits qualities of 'God'. That is providing value without any returns! That is why Sun became a god, Agni became a god etc. The first idea is to be 'Thankful' for all the forces that has helped us to be 'born' and sustain here. Second idea is to pray to extend these benevolent well being to everybody in sustainable manner. It was an idealistic 'socialism'. There was no idea of 'seeking' extra than the neighbor! The prayers were not intended to seek extra energy or extra resources. They were simple and contented people. They must be have been contempt & happy, as they could settle in planes than hunt daily. They prescribed 'Yagnas' to each and everybody to be thankful and promote social harmony. Note Yagnas were individualistic and not a group affair. There was no concept of one manifestation superior to other, hence there was no conflict. So, there was no necessity to build any temples or to wage wars in 'Gods' name. So simple.
They were intelligent and started to evolve sciences. They realized, there must be some connection between earth and celestial objects. The even thought, it i possible that, life on earth came to existence from celestial place (probably they believed something similar to exodus of life from other planet in to earth, as described in matsya purana and story of manu). They started to observe the celestial objects and the study is transformed in to 'Jyotishya'. They must have struggled to explain the ill effects on humanity like diseases, natural calamities and death. As they couldn't attribute these effects to one cause, they looked for answers from celestial objects. Probably it was an idea they got that they should to make efforts to increase good effects and reduce bad effects. This idea driven them to attribute good and bad effects to the movement of celestial objects. As they have to increase the good effects, they constructed temples. Probably they must have seen the falling of 'celestial objects' on earth (￢ﾀﾜUlka patha￢ﾀﾝ). A fire ball that can cause great damage must be bad. But then they say, life springing up on the damaged site in remarkable fashion. So, they realized, the magical effects of these celestial rocks. Probably they must have got some good/effective medicinal plants only on these rocks (The reason for such an effect is the rich minerals present in the rocks). They must have brought these rocks for study. Note that, these rocks are 'Agnishile' as they burn in their fall and then solidify. These people must have thought these rocks could attract energy from deep space (like Sun energy) and its radiance may help nullify the bad energy and or increase the good energy. probably this is influenced by practices of 'sun worship' also. This is the origin of 'Linga'. Seeing the celestial seed in 'agnishile'. note that 'agnishile' can be obtained wether from a volcanic eruption or from a meteorite fall.
River is another aspect. It means everything for the vedic people. River was the reason for the nomadic people to help settle in planes. So, rivers were worshiped and held with great respect. It is suspected that, the vedic people settled around the river 'Saraswati', which is extinct now. If one draws a straight line from Himalayas to a sea, the shortest distance is west flowing river meeting 'Arabian sea' at Gujarat. This was 'Saraswati'. The river was feeded from the Himalayan melting ice with lot of tributaries. A clean and holy water. However, as the Himalayas grew (due to tectonic effect), the flow of water got divided and the course of flow altered, leading to Sindhu ( a tributary of sarswati moving further west) and emergence of Ganges. Note the story of Bagiratha bringing Ganges from heaven (Himalayas) and making it to flow towards east to cleanse the ashes of his forefathers (So Ganges was not there before, it emerged in later time. A story to explain the Un-explainable to masses). The slow death of Saraswati, caused the vedic people to migrate in all directions.
Coming to Somnath...There are recorded facts (by Persian scholars) stating the lingam was levitating in Air (you can google for levitating lingam of somanath!). The historians also records that, the 'Lingam' was levitating because, it was a magnet by itself and it is forced to levitate due to load stones embedded in structures around it. Load stones are natural magnets with very weak magnetic force. It is almost impossible to recreate this levitating linga even with todays advanced science. As super magnets of huge proportions are required to levitate an object of the size of a lingam (note the records says a spear was inserted around the lingam to test it levitation. so lingam must be bigger than a spear!). In-fact the same principle is used in maglev trains that glide at super fast speeds. This levitation is few cms in air. If the description is true, the lingam must have been an unknown object from space. Somnath was the place where river sarswati was meeting the sea. It is also a place closer to 'tropic of cancer', the arc in India, where Sun comes closet to earth. The idea of Somnath temple was to colelct highest power from sun. As the place lies in west part of India, people can see 'Sun set' there. As 'Sun set' is not a good sign, they celebrated the place in the name of 'Moon', so is the name 'Somnath'. Lingam was placed here, so that people can connect with celestial powers. The intention was to visit 'Kashi' due to movement of people in to Gangetic planes and repeated attacks on Somnath.
Somnath took the form of manifestation people wanted towards 'Brahma' the supreme. But note that, the lingam is stated as 'nath', meaning swami or supreme. 'Eeshwara' means the same. That is the reason 'Eeshwara' is attached in 'Venkateshwara' also. The lingam was worshiped rather than a beautifully sculptured god idol for this reason . Note Gujarath has Amrutha shile, from which magnificent gods can be made, like you see in birla temple/Iskon temples, you can ask why this was not the practice? It is even stated that, agnishile is traded far and wide in to olden India. So people constructing temples were looking for proper stone with right size, rather than the stones abundantly available in their back yard!. The lingam at vedic time, doesn't mean the 'shiva' as we interpret today. This was teh reason for wide adoption of 'lingam'. However, as rulers realized the attraction of religion, they started to mix, politics with religion. To understand this, take the situation of a pious kind. He could be defeated in a war and his kingdom be taken by another king. But the tory doesn't end there. The new king has to make the subjects of the defeated land to accept him with respect. This can be done in 2 ways, one by force (Muslims used this) and other was religion. Force is a costly option and may involve revolts. So, religion took prime importance. To keep the distinction, kings started to evoke other gods from veda. This is the reason for emergence of 'Shiva' and 'Vishnu' (and brahma was added later to integrate the divided population under the nae of 'trinity', but it created even more confusions). Lot of stories were built to convinve people. Budhism was promoted by 'Ashoka' for the same reason. The Maurayan land was with 'Shiva', while Kalinga was historically strong seat of 'Vishnu'. To unify the land, Ashoka needed a new religion. So he promoted 'Budhism'. As we see history (like hoysalas) many kings converted from shivism to jainism to budhism to vaishnavism. Just imagine the life of a commoner, If the powerful king switches his religion. The common man or even the courtiers will be embroiled in confusion and a series and serious issues will follow politically. The old courtiers will loose rajashraya and will be driven out. It was really difficult. This is one of the prime reason for Brahmins to migrate to different land to retain their 'Dharma'. It must have been really great, the scriptures and ideas survive in-spite of great persecutions. As worshiping linga was a old practice, many Brahmin's are categorized as shivites (smarthas). Some Brahmins were forced to adopt 'Vishnu' to sustain a living (there by having a vishnu form as their kula devatha), some converted fully as Vaishnavas. But everybody show their roots to Vedas.
With this understanding, if we try to answer the originaly tough question of 'supremacy' of vishnu vs shiva, it becomes a simple issue. Vishnu or Shiva is manifestation of supreme 'Brahman'. As Brahmins, we should stick to 'Vedas' and be mature enough to understand these issues. When we are mature, we move back to the original objectives of veda, that is to be thankful to nature and seek ways to unite with cosmos. If this is the objective, todays programs like 'clean environment (Swatch bharath/save water/save animals/save ganga)', 'Astrophysics/Astronoy', science becomes more meaningful and in-line with what the Dharma was preaching all along. They become as religious and obligatory as doing a 'Gayatri mantra'. The true understanding can make the educated youngsters not to drift away from religion or its true goals. They might find a meaning suitable for their life styles and will be more interested to learn vedas and seek answers. This was the reason for me talk this subject in this forum.
Note that,
1. Somnath was destroyed many times and reconstructed. It is the only Hindu temple constructed by Indian Government after independence.
2. Somnath temple was constructed, after moving a mosque. This was done without any religious disturbance, unlike in Ayodya.
3. If you trace a line from somnath, it closely meets Konark on the other side of India. Note, Konark had magnanimous temple dedicated to 'Sun'. It is presumed like that, because the temple architecture resembles that of sun's chariot. Not much is known about Konark. It could be possible that, the idol there was also a 'Shivalinga'. The temple could be constructed to celebrate the 'Rising sun' gleeing rays on the Shivalinga. This is again to capture the highest energy possible. Unfortunately history is buried and study in them is not encouraged in todays time!
4. Even today, people believe Saraswati reaches somnath as 'Gupta gamini'. ISRO studies has revealed a possibility of river flowing between Himalayas and Somnath via Rajasthan desert.
5. Meeting of river and sea is considered as metamorphic ally as the 'Atma' re-joining with 'Paramatman'. This way, the place is more philosophical than 'Kaashi'.
6. The story is applicable to all karnataka brahmins. Many converted to vaishnava culture over a period of time. Lord venkateshwara doesn't have a divine story in puranas. It is developed during 'Vijaynagar' empire to amolgamate vaishnava brahmins. Vijayanagar emperors worshipped virupaksha, again shiva. The family deity of SVBM is Venkateshwara.
7. The description is significant, as it provides the history of 'Brahmins', Karnataka and India in general.
8. Todays Somnath temple is constructed in 'Chalukya' style. Again a great respect to karnataka and its architecture.
1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6S3shKO6gM
Many temples were constructed without idols. There is no reason historians have given for such hard work and incurring such expenses in olden times. The only reason, probably is that, they are meant for doing meditation and accumulate energy. As in the video, it is rocket or not, alien or not could be debatable, but temples were small with rich 'Vimanas' and no idol.
2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjuSVHwNJMk
Video busts teh myth of Aryan Invasion theory and how mythology of manu was probably an event in history. It shows important Saraswati river connections.
3) https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/islamic-india-the-biggest-holocaust-in-world-history-whitewashed-from-history/
( I intend to update this article, as and when I get new material on this subject!).
