| During
the time of the Chalukyas of Anahilavada, the first available epigraphic evidence of
Somanatha is found as of A.D. 960, referring to Ananta Deva, the Nor thern Shilahara who
came with an army to worship Somanatha at Prabhasa.12 Somanatha, as represented by the Third Temple, was, between A.D. 800 and 950, the
most important deity in the land, patronised by the Pratihara emperors and their
feudatories of Saurashtra. Its magnificence in the beginning of the eleventh century,
therefore, sprang from its association with-the Gurjareshvaras of Kanauj (725-950) and the
great empire which they had built up.
12 IA. IX 34 |
