Who looted the people at Somanath?

“The most important of all the expeditions of Mahmud the Ghazni was the one against Somnath. Mahmud started from Ghazni in October 1024 A.D. …. When Mahmud arrived at Anhilwara in January 1025 A.D, its ruler, Raja Bhima Deo, ran away from the capital with all his followers. Those who remained were defeated and plundered. After that, Mahmud made his way to Somnath.”

“Ibn-al-Athir tells us that when the army of Mahmud reached Somnath, it found that the people of Somnath were amusing themselves on the walls of the fort at the expense of the Muslims telling them that their deity would cut off their heads and destroy them all. Next day when the Muslims advanced for assault, the Hindus left their posts on the walls. The Muslims planted their ladders against the walls and gained the summit. They proclaimed their success with the cries of Allah-u-Akbar. Then followed a fearful slaughter.

A body of Hindus hurried to Somnath, cast themselves before the deity and besought him to grant them victory. Night came and the fight was suspended. Next morning, the Muhammadens renewed the battle and made greater havoc among the Hindus, till they drove them from the town to the house of their idol Somnath. A dreadful slaughter followed at the gate of the temple. Band after band of defenders entered the temple and with their hands clasped round their necks, wept and passionately entreated Somnath. Then again they issued forth to fight until they were slain, and but few were left alive. These took to the sea in boats to make their escape but the Muslims overtook them and some were killed and some were drowned.”

“Al Qazwini (1203-83) describes the temple of Somnath in these words: “Among the wonders of that place, was the temple in which was placed the idol called Somnath. This idol was in the middle of the temple without anything to support it from below, or to suspend it from above. It was held in the highest honour among the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with amazement, whether he as a Mussalman or an infidel. …. Everything of the most precious was brought there as offering, and the temple was endowed with more than 10000 villages. …A thousand Brahmans were employed in worshipping the idol and attending on the visitors, and 500 damsels sang and danced at the door- all these were maintained upon the endowments of the temple. …Near (the idol) was chain of gold weighing 200 maunds. When a portion of the night closed, this chain used to be shaken like bells to rouse a fresh lot of Brahmins to perform worships”

The abovementioned three paragraphs have been excerpted from the book ‘History of Medieval India’ written by V.D.Mahajan and published by M/s S.Chand & Co which is meant to be a text book for the history students doing B.A and M A. in various universities. The book carries only part of the historical events. What the author has chosen to omit recording is given below.  But, the readers with common sense would wonder how a society - in which a temple has become so rich and famous, providing employment opportunity to “more than 1000” Brahmins and 500 damsels who sang and danced - could not provide even minimum resistance to the invaders and why the ruler, Raja Bhima Deo, who must also naturally have had adequate wealth and military force, chose to run away from the capital. The readers may go through the following facts now:

The Sanctum Sanctorum was built with the help of magnets on all the four sidewalls and also on the floor and the ceiling. The idol was made of iron sheets. Even the kings were not informed of this fact and nobody was allowed to go near the deity except the Brahmins. The only non-Brahmin who had access to it after the consecration of the temple was Mahmud the Ghazni. The surprised kings were informed that that the Shivling had not been erected there by ordinary men but the Lord himself had emerged there on his own and that was the reason for the miracle. The gullible kings and the public poured money in. There were set up numerous feeding centers for the Brahmins and Vedic schools near the temple. The Brahmins made hay thus for 600 long years. All the six kings of the Gurjara nation were called as Sishyas of the chief priest of the temple.When  Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Somnath there were jewels worth Rs.18 crores and jewellery worth Rs.20 crores.

The strengh of the army of Mahmud of Ghazni was only 25000. But, the Gurjara kings had an army of 4¹/₂ lakh persons and were prepared to put up a stiff fight against the invader. But they had to act in accordance with the directives of their guru , the chief priest of the temple.But the guru told them that God had appeared before him and told him that He would protect the kings. The priest also said that God had vanished after imposing the condition that special homas must be performed and the Brahmins must be given Annadhan, Swarnadhan and Kanyadan. The priest therefore advised the kings not to go for war but to use the money intended for the war to be gifted to the Brahmins. He also told them that they face such problems as their belief in Puranas does not continue to be as strong as ever and advised them to be strictly faithful at least thereafter. Believing the words of their guru, the valiant kings waived the idea of counter attack and diverted the money for the welfare of the Brahmins.

1008 yagasalas were opened. Numerous Brahmins were employed for performing homa and Varna japas. Besides, astrologers were pressed into service to carry optimistic messages to the kings. In the meanwhile,  the invader had arrived within eight miles of Somnath. Mahmud of Ghazni became actually afraid how and why nobody had come to oppose him. He suspected whether it could be a ploy to trap him. He therefore sent his spies to collect information on the field situation. By now, the Brahmins had assessed the situation and decided to run away.  More than 11000 persons had thus run away and only 800 persons remained . The Muslim spies could not comprehend what was going on and reported that “many persons were pouring ghee and other eatables in fire alongwith sandalwood and wheat.  Even many precious materials are burnt that way. Besides, many human heads were floating in the water without however moving from one place to another. The entire town is covered by smoke. I did not see anything else”. The emboldened invader started advancing towards Somnath. On coming to know of it, the chief priest ordered for decorating his own pearl-studded palanquin and sent it alongwith the Devadaasis to receive the invader. When Mahmud of Ghazni reached the temple, he was received with fanfare and a throne was kept decorated for him in the inner sanctorum of the temple opposite to the diety. That throne was valued at Rs.50 lakhs at that time. Its name was Vyaspeet. The deity of the temple had also been decoraed with precious ornaments.

The chief priest went near the invader and said, “O! King of Kings!! We remain protected only by your honest rule.Mahavishnu; Pruthiveepathi! You are an avatar of the Lord Vishnu. The bogus kings here had said so many meaningless things about you. It was my arrow like words that controlled them. You should not, therefore, do any harm to the Brahmins. I shall place at your feet a sum of  Rs.3 crores as Dakshina”. But, the invader became furious and said, “Oh Kafir! Do you think I am a beggar? I have come here to punish those who worship stone”. Whereupon, the chief priest fell on the feet of the invader and prayed for his mercy pleading that all these arrangements were for their survival. But Mahmud did not heed. He said that these priests were cheating the innocents and were also cheating God. He demanded the treasury be shown to him.  When only some portions of the treasury were shown to him, the invader tied the finger of the chief priest with cloth and soaked it in oil and burnt it in fire. Immediately, the chief priest had shown the entire treasury. The invader looted them all. He had ordered for demolition of the temple. The idol had fallen on the ground on the destruction of magnetic walls. The invader immediately broke that idol also. Gushed out of it like a stream were pearls, diamonds and various precious stones. The invader said that because he had broken the idol, God had given him the award. He had taken them all. He also took along with him 6000 women and 5000 men. Out of these 11000 persons, Brahmins constituted only 800 persons. All the others were Shudras. More details about it are available in Arabic and Gujarathi books.

1. The kings were given wrong advice.
2. The armed forces were made ineffective.
3. The country was betrayed and the interests of the Brahmins alone were sought to be protected. &
4. The men and women became prisoners of the invaders and subjected to eternal humiliation.

All this only because the kings of those days had been captives of the Brahmins and accepted them as their gurus and acted according to their advice. The Brahmins who had been cheating the people and looting their money all along with the protection of the king, had been exempted from payment of tax to the government. “There was no principle of equality of law among the Hindus; the Brahmans were exempted from capital punishment… The share of the state was 1/6^th of the produce and Brahmans were completely exempted.”(Page 56- History of Medieval India – V.D. Mahajan – S.Chand &Co) The common Shudras stomached the insult and held the Brahmins in high esteem. The kings had venerated them. Still, the Brahmins had all along been loyal only to themselves and were prepared to betray them at the earliest available opportunity.