Sidhpur is also known as
Sri-sthal or a "pious place". It is mentioned in the Rig Veda to be existing at that time as the Dashu village. The legend is that the great sage Vyashya had donated his bones to God
Indra here at Sidhpur. Sidhpur is also believed to be located at the junction of two rivers
Ganga and Saraswati. Even in the
Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, it is mentioned that the
Pandavas had visited the place while they were in exile. During the 4-5th A.D a large number of people settled in this part. They were
Gurjara people from
Iran.
Around the 10th century, under Solanki rulers, the city was at the zenith of fame and glory. The ruler
Sidhraj Jaisingh built his capital at Sidhpur, thus the name Sidhpur which literally means Siddhraj's town. He built a temple dedicated to
Shiva, and also beautiful palaces and one huge tower, some say of 80 metres long. He also brought large numbers of
Brahmins from
Kashi (Varanashi) and had them settled here. During the 12th century Muhammed Ghori destroyed the town on his way to
Somnath. Around 30,000 people were killed in the raid, and the Solanki Empire was destroyed.
During the Sultanate time the place was under the rule of local dynasty ruling from
Palanpur. Later on in 15th century the place was brought under the
Mughal rule by
Akbar. Under the Mughal rule the town developed and flourished.
In order to understand fully the meaning of what was exposed at Siddhpur and the strife it caused, we have to know what the Rudramahalaya was, how it came to be built at Siddhpur and how a Jami Masjid was raised on its site and from its debris. The Report of the Minorities Commission provides some historical background. So does the Note from the Government of Gujarat. But the information is meager and leaves a lot to be told. Both of them were dealing with a communal problem and were not expected to give a detailed history of Siddhpur, the Rudramahalaya and the Jami Masjid.
The Note from the Government of Gujarat gives no information about the historical or religious importance of Siddhpur. The Report of the Minorities Commission says that Siddhpur is a historical city and that it was ruled successively by Hindu Rajas and Muslim Sultans. There is no reference to the religious importance of Siddhpur as a place of Hindu pilgrimage. The article by B.L. Nagarch brings out that point when it says that as the obsequies offerings to the paternal ancestors must be made at
Gaya, so corresponding offerings to the maternal ancestors have to be performed at Siddhpur. Nagarch tells us also that the ancient name of Siddhpur appears to have been Sristhala or Sristhalaka and that the name of Siddhpur was given to this place in honor of Siddharaja Jayasimha who completed the Temple of Rudra-Mahadev in the twelfth century here.
The Puranas regard Sristhala as the most sacred spot in the Sarasvata-mandal of
Gujarat. The Bhagvata Purana associates it with Kardama rishi, who had his hermitage here, and also with Kapil muni who was born in this place on the bank of the sacred
Saraswati River. It was also known as Vindusara. It is said that anahillapataka or anahillapattana, the capital of medieval
Gujarat before
Ahmadabad came up in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, was founded where it was because of its nearness to Sristhala.
Anahillapattana, now known as Patan, was built in AD 745 by Vanaraja, the founder of the Chavotkata or Chapa or Chavda dynasty. It reached its greatest glory, however, in the reign of Jayasimha (AD 1094-1143), the most illustrious ruler of the Chaulukya or Solanki dynasty of
Gujarat. Jayasimha was very much devoted to Sristhala and visited it often in order to keep the company of sages and saints living at this place. There is a popular legend that Jayasimha defeated and captured Barbara, a demon who was molesting the holy men at Sristhala. Barbara, we are told, became his obedient servant and performed many superhuman deeds for him. That is how Jayasimha earned the sobriquet of Siddharaja. He built at Sristhala a temple dedicated to Rudra Mahakala which became known as Rudramahalaya or simply Rudramala. Because of its close association with Siddharaja, Sristhala became known as Siddhapura which name was corrupted to Siddhpur in course of time.
The spiritual fame of Siddhpur, however, proved to be its misfortune when
Gujarat passed under a long spell of Muslim rule towards the close of the thirteenth century. Thereafter it attracted the attention of every Islamic iconoclast. Its temples were reduced to ruins and its holy men were either killed or scared away. Its spiritual importance had become greatly reduced when Munhata Nainasi, the famous historian of Rajasthan, visited it in Samvat 1717 (AD 1660). NaiNasi was at that time the Diwan of Maharaja Jaswant Singh of
Jodhpur who had been appointed the Governor of Gujarat by Aurangzeb in AD 1658. He has left for us a brief description, historical and topographical, of Siddhpur as he saw it. Siddhpur, writes Nainasi is a pleasant city. It was founded by Sidharao after his own name. He invited from the East one thousand Auditchya Brahmins who were well-versed in the Vedas and gave them seven hundred villages around Siddhpur. He had built a big temple named Rudramala. That was razed to the ground by Sultan Alauddin. Even so, several temples survive today. Beyond the city, towards the east, there is the river Saraswati. A temple dedicated to Madhava had been built on its bank. A ghat [flight of steps leading to the river] has also been constructed. The temple was destroyed by the Mughal but the ghat can still be seen. A Turk has built his bungalow on the Ghat.
Siddhpur was liberated from the Muslim stranglehold by the Marathas in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. By the first quarter of the nineteenth, the Marathas lost to the British and in the settlement that followed Siddhpur was included in the princely state of
Baroda along with Patan. The Marathas made no attempt to revive Siddhpur as a centre of Hindu pilgrimage. Nor did they try to restore Patan as the seat of a Hindu government. Neither the spiritual nor the political capital of
Gujarat at one time has retained anything of a great past except wistful memories.
Courtesy By : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidhpur
