WHAT SOMNATH TEMPLE STANDS FOR AFTER 1,000 YEARS OF MAHMUD GHAZNI’S RAID

After Independence, Patel championed rebuilding Somnath; K M Munshi organized the trust and public funding. The temple rose in 1950-51; President Rajendra Prasad consecrated it.

- TDG NETWORK

A photograph of the present Somnath temple in Prabhas Patan, Gujarat. The complex — rebuilt in the 20th century in the Chalukya style — stands next to the Arabian Sea and is managed by the Shri Somnath Trust. The image is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and taken by SurajPatro1997.

On the morning of 11 January 2026 Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode a white horse through the western Gujarat port of Veraval.

He was leading the Shaurya Yatra, a procession of 108 horses organised as part of Somnath Swabhiman Pary, an elaborate celebration marking two anniversaries, First, the festival commemorated one thousand years since Mahmud of Ghazni's 1026 raid on the Somnath shrine; second, it marked seventy-five years since the post-independence reconstruction of the temple. According to the official programme, Modi offered prayers at the shrine, joined the roadshow and then addressed a large gathering before continuing to Rajkot. A massive security operation followed the prime minister through the small coastal town. This contemporary spectacle illustrates the continuing political and cultural significance of the temple known to Hindus as one of the twelve jyotirlingas of Shiva.