Somnath rises on the Arabian Sea shore at Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra, revered as the first and foremost of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva. Its sthala-purana tells of Chandra, the Moon-god (Soma), who married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha but favoured Rohini above the rest; cursed by Daksha to wane and lose his lustre, Chandra came to Prabhasa and performed severe penance to Shiva, and the pleased Lord restored his radiance. The shrine he established became known as Somnath — the Lord of the Moon.
This legend is recounted in the Koti Rudra Samhita of the Shiva Purana and in the Prabhasa Khanda of the Skanda Purana, which extol Prabhasa Kshetra as one of the holiest tirthas. Adi Shankaracharya's Dwadasha Jyotirlinga Stotram opens by naming it first — "Saurashtre Somnatham cha." The Mahabharata too remembers Prabhasa as a sacred field, the place from which, tradition holds, Sri Krishna departed for his heavenly abode.
Rebuilt many times through the ages, the present temple in the Chalukya style is famed for its towering shikhara, its seaside sanctum, and an evening aarti offered to the sound of the waves — a timeless shore that draws pilgrims from across the land.
