| Cousens
says that Mahmud appointed Mitha Khan as his governor at Somanatha and that it was he who
completed the destruction of the temple and was eventually driven out by Bhima Deva I of
Anahilavada Patan, who rebuilt the temple "possibly upon the site of the
former," and there can surely be little doubt that the portions of an older basement,
that we see in the heart of the present old building, are part of his temple.18 But the
appointment of Mitha Khan as the governor or deputy of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni at
Somanatha is a mythical story versified by Shaikh Din in December 1801 and translated into
English by Watson for the Indian Alitiquary.19 A
careful study of Shaikh Din's ballad reveals several absurd anachronisms and it appears
that the bard has hopelessly confused the name of Sulta Mahmud of Ghazni with that
of a later Muslim ruler of Kathiawar, perhaps Sultan Mahmud Begda (A.D. 1459-1511).
18. List of Antiquarian Remains in the Bombay
Presidency, P. 182. Somanath and other Mediaeval Temples in Kathiawad, p.22.
19.
Indian Antiquary, Vol. VIII (for 1879), pp. 153-61. |
