The Battle Story of Somnath: Story of 50,000 commoners who fought against Islamist tyrant Ghazni to save Somnath Temple

The Bhagwa Dhwaj waving freely atop Somnath temple with the winds coming from the Arabian Sea were not like that, till May 1951. The temple was plundered by Islamic ruler, Mahmud Ghazni in the eleventh century. As many as 50,000 common people have fought and sacrificed their life to save the first Jyotirlinga in Somnath.

The restoration works of the temple were initiated only after India’s Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel visited Junagadh. On November 12, 1947, while the stabilisation of the state by the Indian Army was going on, Patel ordered the reconstruction of the Somnath temple.

With many films in the making around real-life stories, Director Anup Thapa on July 15, announced his upcoming film, ‘The Battle Story of Somnath’. A day before the announcement of this film, makers dropped the mind-numbing trailer of the upcoming film ‘Ajmer 92’.

As per the first teaser of the much-anticipated film, The Battel Story of Stomath, the plot will revolve around the invasion by the Islamic tyrants, followed by the biggest-ever fight presented by the common people against Ghazni and then the restoration works done by Sardar Patel.

The one-minute-forty-two-second video released between 12 pm to 1 pm already has views in thousands. The film will be made in several languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Marathi. It is produced by Manish Mishra and Ranjit Sharma.

No announcements related to the star cast of the film is made, as of now.

The teaser begins with the chants of mantras in Sanskrit, followed by visuals of twelve sacred Jyotirlingas. Later, delves deep into the history telling, it was the first Jyotirlinga of Bhagwan Shiva and in Satyuga, Chandra Dev made it out of gold and brass by Ravana in Tretayuga.

All these details are presented in caricature format. Later on, the film features Mahmud Ghazni who invaded Saurashtra and plundered the historic temple. It mentions how more than 50,000 common men sacrificed their lives to protect the temple from the Islamic tyrant.

Later on, the clip features Sardar Patel and his efforts towards the restoration of the temple.

It further shows a quote of India’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad saying, “Somnath is a symbol of the victory of construction on destruction.”

Taking to Twitter, noted film critic Taran Adarsh shared a teaser of the film giving an insight into the concept of the film.

“PAN-INDIA FILM ‘THE BATTLE STORY OF SOMNATH’ ANNOUNCED. Producers #2idiotFilms and #ManishMishra have announced a PAN-#India film, titled #TheBattleStoryOfSomnath. Directed by #AnupThapa. Co-produced by #RanjeetSharma,” Taran Adarsh tweeted.

As per the media reports, the story of the film is different from what children have been studying for so long.  Thapa plans to offer a version of Indian history through the film that has often been forgotten or distorted by some historians.

Invader Mahmud of Ghazni, a Muslim ruler and a member of the Ghaznavid dynasty destroyed the Gujarat temple in the 10th century. In addition to slaughtering thousands of worshippers who were attempting to protect the temple, he also broke the Jyotirling. He invaded Bharat as many as 17 times.

In his 16th attempt to break into the Somnath temple, Ghazni succeeded and broke the jyotirlinga into four pieces. He did this to display his hatred for Kafirs and their idols, or symbols of worship.

Other than the Somnath temple, Ghazni destroyed temples in Kangra, Mathura, and Jwalamukhi. He earned the moniker ‘idol breaker’ as a result of anti-Hindu invasions. After demolishing the temple of Somnath, Ghazni made a Mosque in place.

It was under the leadership of Sardar Patel, the new structure was set up in place. The temple is water-bound from three sides.

The present temple is a Māru-Gurjara architecture (also called Chaulukya or Solanki style) temple. It has a “Kailash Mahameru Prasad” form and reflects the skill of the Sompura Salats, one of Gujarat’s master masons.

The architect of the new Somnath temple was Prabhashankarbhai Oghadbhai Sompura, who worked on recovering and integrating the old recoverable parts with the new design in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The new Somnath temple is intricately carved, a two-level temple with a pillared mandapa and 212 relief panels.

The upcoming film is set to throw light on the restoration part of the temple with the biggest-ever fight put up by the common mass.