SOMNAUTH', or SOMNATII-PUTTEN, a t. of Guzerat• in Hindustan, is situated on the s.w. coast of the peninsula of Kattywar (q.v.), about 33 III. from its southern extremity. and has at present it pop, of 5,000 most of whom are Mohammedans. The town is fortified by a strong stone wall 9 ft. thick. strengthened by 38 towers; it contains many mosques, and the ruis of the celebrated Hindu temple of the idol Somnauth. The ruins of the temple are in a state of fair preservation, and give the idea of its having been a gloomy, massive temple in the form of an oblong hall 96 ft. by 68 ft, crowned by a magnificent dome, and covered on the inside and outside with elaborate sculpture and carving Mils of mytholojeal subjects. The splendor of this temple has doubtless been much exaggerated by various travelers; but a thousand years ago it was so famous as a place of pilgrimage for pious Hindus, as well as for its immense wealth—the accumula tions of centuries of presents—thttt it attracted the zealous idol destroyer, Mahmud of Ghizni, after he had accomplished his self-imposed mission of conquest, spolia tion, and conversion in the rest of northern India. In 1024 he appeared before Somnauth drove its defenders—who at first had been buoyed up with sanguine hopes that their favorite god had drawn the Mohammentlans hither that he might blast them with his wrath—to take refuge in the temple, where they defended them selves with such valor that Mahmud's army was forced to retreat; but the sub F et-pent rout of two ITinthi armies which had advanced to the aid of the sacred city, so dispirited the defenders that iSomnauth was immediately surrendered, the idol destroyed, and the enormous wealth of the temple, consisting chiefly of precious jewels, carried off along with the gates of the temple. These gates, which are said to have been made of
sandalwood, were brought back from the entrance to Mabiund's tomb in Afghanistan by the British in 1842, and their recovery announced in a magnificent proclamation. which called upon the chiefs of Si•hind, Rajputana. Mal wa, Guzerat, to transmit them "with all honor" to the place whence, eight centuries ago, they had been violently removed. They were, however, never restored to Somnauth, as the home authorities disapproved of the tenor of the proclamation, fearing that it might stint elate religions animosity between the two great religious bodies of Hindustan. There was also reasonable ground of doubt as to whether the gates were really the original gates of Soninauth and even whether (since the Pe•iskta does not mention the circumstance) Mahmud had taken away any gates. The repute of Somnauth as a place of religious pilgrimage, and its wealth, revived some time after its spoliation by sultan Malitund, to such an extent as frequently to attract the various Mohammedan robber-princes of western India ; and it is still at the present day a chief resort of pions Hindus from all quarters, who pay a small tribute to the Guieowar for liberty to perform their devotions at this favorite shrine.— See Price's Mohammedan History, vol. ii.; Dow's translation of the Ferislaa; Rac(zat.al-safi6; sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. i.; and Smith's Life of Dr. John Wilson. (1878).