WORD FOR WORD: Was Somnath a temple of goddess Manat? —Khaled Ahmed
Somnath was in Gujarat, the most important province of the Mughal empire because of its revenues. Todar Mal’s system of taxation was first tried here. It created the only merchant class among the Muslims of India. Indian politics was dominated by the warriors of the North rather than by traders of Gujarat who actually deserved to rule India
Sunday magazine of Nawa-e-Waqt (17 July 2005) had a write-up derived from Romilla Thapar saying that before Mehmud Ghaznavi destroyed the mandir of Somnath in Gujarat, he was told by someone that Somnath was actually the temple of Manat.
Manat was a goddess of pre-Islamic Arabia whose black statue (unshaped stone) was taken from Makka and brought to Gujarat. Ghaznavi was supposed to be following the directive of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the mandir of Manat should be destroyed.
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Sadly, the Ismailis destroyed another mandir in Multan and built a mosque in its place, but Ghaznavi came down and destroyed the Ismaili mosque too. Ghaznavi attacked Multan and Mansura and killed non-orthodox Muslims along with the infidels.
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Manat is a pagan goddess mentioned in the Quran. She was worshipped in Northern Arabia. The tribes approached her for rain and victory. They brought it to Makka to worship it at the time of pilgrimage.
The worship of Manat included the ritual of running between the hills of Safa and Marwa. Greek historians who noted the pre-Islamic goddess equated it with Tyche, literally meaning fortune. In Greek mythology Tyche (pronounced tuche) was the daughter of the chief god Zeus.
He had delegated to her the task of deciding everyday rewards for mortals. If a mortal got uppity after receiving divine favour there was another goddess Nemesis (due process) to take care of that. Manat was thus a kind of Arabian Tyche.
Fatima Mernissi in her book Islam and Democracy gives the following details about Manat. It was the goddess of Taif and exacted human sacrifice, its name derived from maniyya (death). According to Ibn Hisham, Manat was the goddess of Banu Thaqif of Taif, but was worshipped by the tribes of Aws and Khazraj, who were the majority population of Madina and had invited the Prophet (PBUH) there in 622 AD.
Aws and Khazraj did their hajj at Makka but did not shave their heads till they had sacrificed to Manat at Taif. Manat’s name also went back to an ancient Semitic etymology meaning ‘count the days of your life’, identifying the goddess with destiny.
The Prophet (PBUH) appropriated two sacrificial sabres from the temple of Manat and gave them to Hazrat Ali, saying that one of them was Al-Zulfiqar, which became the famous sword of Ali the Warrior.
Sacrifice of daughters was offered at the altar of Manat, which the Prophet (PBUH) ended by destroying the goddess (a stone) placed inside the Kaaba.
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In 1024 AD, Mahmud of Ghazna attacked Somnath either to obey the edict of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) about Manat or to enrich himself with the booty to be found at the big temple. He killed 50,000 Brahmins who thought he would be punished by Shiva whose temple it was.
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It is said that he took out the stone (linga) representing Somnath (literally, Moon Lord) or Shiva and took it to Ghazna with him and placed it under the steps of a mosque. Needless to say the tale is full of religious symbolism.
Somnath was in Gujarat, the most important province of the Mughal empire because of its revenues. Todar Mal’s system of taxation was understandably first tried here. Gujarat had the only sea port in India, Surat, facing westward.
All the merchants of India came from Gujarat. It created the only merchant class among the Muslims of India. Gandhi and Jinnah both came from there, but Indian politics was dominated by the warriors of the North rather than by traders who actually deserved to rule India.
There is no doubt that Gujarat was rich. Its temple at Somnath had to reflect the wealth of the Gujarati traders. And any invader would take this detail well to heart. Nadir Shah and his deputy Ahmad Shah both took away a lot of wealth from India after their raids. They were following Ghaznavi’s example.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-8-2005_pg3_3