PM Modi marks 75 years of Somnath Temple's revival at Amrut Mahotsav
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, 11 May led the Somnath Amrut Mahotsav at the Somnath Temple in Gujarat, commemorating 75 years since the shrine's post-independence reconstruction and reconsecration. The event also marks approximately 1,000 years since the temple's first recorded invasion in 1026 CE, reframing a millennium of turbulence as a testament to civilisational endurance.
The Ceremony and Its Significance
The Somnath Amrut Mahotsav commemorates the 1951 reconsecration of the shrine by India's first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Prime Minister Modi, who serves as Chairman of the Shri Somnath Trust, addressed the gathering and reframed the temple's history — not as a chronicle of destruction, but as a millennium-long journey of reconstruction and renewal. This comes amid a broader government push to position India's ancient heritage sites as anchors of national identity.
A Thousand Years of History
The Somnath Temple, revered as the first of the twelve Jyotirlingas dedicated to Lord Shiva, has roots stretching back to the Indus Valley Civilisation between 2000 and 1200 BCE. Known also as Prabhasa, or
