The following is an excerpt from Invaders and Infidels: Book 1, authored by Sandeep Balakrishna.
Monday. 18 October 1025.
Mahmud of Ghazni knelt on the ground in prayer and asked the blessing of Allah ‘upon his arms’. Then he set out of his capital Ghazni, leading a massive army that included thirty thousand regular cavalry. Only the best would do for this dangerous adventure. His support cortège also comprised thirty thousand camels that carried water and provisions. Apart from this, each trooper had his own mini-retinue of two camels to supply water.
About three weeks later, Mahmud reached Multan, rested there for a while and on 26 November, began his expedition proper. His earlier experience of an unfruitful siege at Kalinjara had taught him a lesson he didn’t forget: the main portion of the Ganga–Jamuna belt was still fully under the control of powerful infidel kings and was, therefore, an unsafe route to take. And so, from Multan, Mahmud marched downwards towards the deadly Thar desert, which was ‘fiery as Jahannum itself ’. It was sheer recklessness motivated by nothing but innate fanaticism, naked ambition and goaded by a kind of indomitable inner jubilation of a foregone victory: of acquiring loot that would surpass everything he had acquired so far. The scorching Thar was overpowered by Mahmud’s inflamed grit.
Meanwhile at Anahilapataka, Bhima, the current ruler of the distinguished Gujarat Chalukya dynasty founded by Mularaja, was fast asleep at the wheel. Somanatha was the guardian deity of Mularaja.
When he emerged from the blazing desert after a gruelling journey, Mahmud stormed the Ludrava town near Jaisalmer and completely wasted it, slaughtering the citadel manned by a small body of soldiers who fought till the last breath but didn’t flee.
Next, he took the Chikudar hill, which was so high that the stars passed46 below it. Then it was the turn of Nahrwala, the capital itself. Which was when the thoroughly unprepared and complacent Bhima fled the scene in advance and sought refuge in the fort of Kanthkot.
By December 1025, in an astonishing span of just over two months, Mahmud was camping outside Patan itself. At this point, the strategist in him chose to take some much-deserved rest after the wearisome desert journey and all that fighting. He replenished his provisions and water and marched towards Mundher or Modhera, home of the fabulous Sun Temple that stands even today as a tourist attraction. Here, he encountered solid resistance from the Hindu army, which he eventually crushed. Then he cut straight across the Kathiawar peninsula and arrived at the opulent town of Dewalwara, where he had to again face stiff resistance. His superior force easily overcame it by slaughtering soldiers and unarmed citizens alike. He smashed its temples and looted everything worth looting.
It was the final leg of his devastating campaign.
Thursday. 6 January 1026.
Mahmud of Ghazni finally stood outside the gates of the magnificent Somanatha and realised that it wouldn’t be easy to take it. The city by the seashore was strongly defended by a fortress with lakhs of devout Hindus inside, willing to do anything to save it. However, by the time Mahmud had encamped there, these devout Hindus had been stricken by a belief that was as cocksure as it was fatal. This is how the historian D.C. Ganguly describes the eve before an epic tragedy of their own making.
The Hindus, who assembled on the rampart of the fort, were [sic] passing their time in merry-making, fondly believing that Somanatha had drawn the Muslims there only to annihilate them for the sins they had committed in demolishing idols elsewhere. Their morale was high even though their leader had fled away in cowardice with his family to a neighbouring island
Mahmud began his pounding the very next morning. The Hindus hit back with a ferocity and violence that stunned Mahmud and his armies, which quickly retreated for the day. The next day proved even worse for Mahmud.
The Hindu defence derived its strength and fury from desperation but it didn’t last because it was leaderless against Mahmud’s well-organised and superior army. The greater the pushback from the Hindu side, the more determined Mahmud became. As Mahmud’s soldiers finally scaled the walls of the fort and entered Somanatha, they found the desperate Hindus crowded in front of the gate of the grand Somanatha Temple.
This is what happened next.
The Somanatha Temple stood on huge blocks of stone, and its roof was supported by 56 wooden pillars carved and set with precious stones. The pyramidal roof was made of 13 stories, and was surmounted by fourteen golden domes. The girth of the linga was 4 feet 6 inches, and its height above the base was 7 feet 6 inches. A portion of the linga, 6 feet in height, was hidden beneath the base. Adjacent to it under its pedestal there was the treasury containing many gold and silver miniature idols. The canopy over it was set with jewels and was decorated with rich embroidery. The dark chamber in which the linga was installed was illumined by jewelled chandeliers. In front of the chamber there was a chain of gold, 200 Manns in weight, attached to a bell, which was rung by shaking the chain from time to time for specific purpose. One thousand Brahmanas were appointed to perform the worship of the linga and for conducting the devotees into the temple. There were three hundred barbers for shaving the heads and beards of the pilgrims. Three hundred and fifty persons, both male and female, were employed to sing and dance before the linga every day. All these people received daily allowances from the temple funds. The income of the temple was derived from the 10,000 villages endowed to it, and from the offerings of the devotees. The temple possessed vast wealth in gold, silver, pearls, and rich jewels, which had been accumulated in course of centuries.
Mahmud of Ghazni annihilated all this painstaking work done over the course of centuries in one savage sweep of the sword and blaze of the fire.
The first step was to slaughter this crowd of panicked, desperate and crestfallen Hindus. The large bands of people who were inside the sprawling temple, praying to their Ishta-Devata Somanatha, the centuries-old, sacred Jyotirlinga, for courage, surged out and charged against Mahmud’s soldiers. Batch after batch of such Hindus were pitilessly massacred. The total estimate runs to about fifty thousand. Those who attempted to escape were doggedly hunted down and slaughtered.
It was now time for Sultan Mahmud to crown his savage triumph by stamping it with the twin emblems of the victory of Islam and his credentials as a pious Ghazi. Al-Biruni, Mahmud’s chronicler and witness writes:
The image was destroyed by Prince Mahmud in 416 H. (1026 C.E.). He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghaznin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakraswamin, an idol of bronze that had been brought from Thaneshar. Another part of the idol from Somnath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.
The later Muslim chronicler Firishta portrays the same vandalism of the Somanatha Temple in this fashion:
Having now placed guards round the walls and at the gates, Mahmud entered Somnat accompanied by his sons and a few of his nobles and principal attendants. On approaching the temple, he saw a superb edifice built of hewn stone.... In the center of the [Temple] hall was Somnat, a stone idol, five yards in height, two of which were sunk in the ground. The King, approaching the image, raised his mace and struck off its nose. He ordered two pieces of the idol to be broken off and sent to Ghazni so that one might be thrown at the threshold of the public mosque, and the other at the court door of his own palace [emphasis added]. These identical fragments are to this day (now six hundred years ago) to be seen at Ghazni. Two more fragments were reserved to be sent to Mecca and Medina…. The next blow broke open the belly of Somnat, which was hollow, and discovered a quantity of diamonds, rubies, and pearls.
When a group of distraught Brahmins beseeched Mahmud to halt further destruction of the murti in exchange for gold and other wealth, Mahmud was candid:
Should I consent to such a measure, my name would be handed down to posterity as ‘Mahmud the idol- seller’ whereas I desire to be known as ‘Mahmud the idol-destroyer’
After finishing his pervasive plunder, pillage and pogrom of the infidels, Mahmud burned down this sacred temple. Somanatha was now a smoking monument to the wreckage caused by religious piety, a catastrophe which K.M. Munshi characterises as follows:
A sacred city like … Somanatha armoured principally by the devotion and reverence of the whole country, fell prey to an army pledged to fanatic destruction of alien shrines.
Tidings of the destruction of Somanatha travelled like wildfire to the corners of the Muslim world. It was celebrated as the crowning glory of Islam over idolatry.
Sultan Mahmud overnight became the champion of the Only True Faith. Countless paeans were composed in his honour.
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