The
Somanath temple or
Deo Patan, is a Hindu temple located in Prabhas Patan, Veraval in Gujarat, India. It is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus and is the first among the twelve
jyotirlinga shrines of Shiva. It is unclear when the first version of the Somnath temple was built, with estimates varying between the early centuries of the 1st millennium and about the 9th century CE. The temple is not mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism as
Somnath nomenclature, but the "Prabhasa-Pattana" is mentioned as a
tirtha, where this temple exists. For example, the
Mahabharata in Chapters 109, 118, and 119 of Book 3, and Sections 10.45 and 10.78 of the
Bhagavata Purana state Prabhasa to be a
tirtha on the coastline of Saurashtra.