A good deal of old and remarkable architecture remains, but
mixed with Moslem work, and no part of the building as it stands is
believed to be a survival from the time of Mahmud; though part may belong
to a reconstruction which was carried out by Raja Bhima Deva of Anhilwara
about twenty-five years after Mahmud's invasion. It is remarkable that Ibn
Asir speaks of the temple plundered by Mahmud as "built upon 56 pillars of
teak-wood covered with lead." Is it possible that it was a wooden
building?
In connection with this brief chapter on Somnath we present a faithful
representation of those Gates which Lord Ellenborough rendered so
celebrated in connection with that name, when he caused them to be removed
from the Tomb of Mahmud, on the retirement of our troops from Kabul in
1842. His intention, as announced in that once famous paean of his, was
to have them carried solemnly to Guzerat, and there restored to the (long
desecrated) temple. Calmer reflection prevailed, and the Gates were
consigned to the Fort of Agra, where they still remain.
Captain J.D. Cunningham, in his Hist. of the Sikhs (p. 209), says that
in 1831, when Shah Shuja treated with Ranjit Singh for aid to recover his
throne, one of the Maharaja's conditions was the restoration of the Gates
to Somnath.
