Talk:Multan Sun Temple

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Any photographs of Suraj Kund, please?[edit]

The Suraj Kund temple was the successor to the legendary Sun temple, the very first and the original Sun temple established by Samba and worshipped by the Maga brahmins. Can someone upload some photos please? Malaiya (talk) 02:40, 23 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

An example of a successor temple is the Martanda Tirtha at Mattan, Kashmir. The modern Somanath temple is a successor to the legendary temple, that was reconstructed several times. Malaiya (talk) 03:06, 23 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Jain[edit]

On Meenakshi Jain's "scholarship".

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Jain writes,

Today, only the ruins of the [Multan Sun] temple remain (Pl. 5). Interestingly, a stone image of the Sun god was recovered from the site and is now housed in a museum in England (Pl. 6). (p. 39)
[..]
[The temple] was now under the control of Hazrat Baha-ud-din Zakariya administration, and no one was permitted entry (Pl. 7).(p. 40)

Pl. 5 is this photograph and has been captioned, "The Sun temple at Multan and the adjacent mosque/ tomb." Note that the composition is the same as in this broadpan photo at Commons. So, what's the weridish dilapidated structure beside the tomb? It is the Prahladpuri Temple as can be confirmed from (1) this Scroll.in report by a columnist from Multan, (2) the caption of the Commons photo, and (3) an ill-informed tourist (second photo).

Perhaps Jain believes the legendary Sun Temple to be the Prahladpuri Temple? It is a fringe argument and has been hypothesized by a few scholars though without evidence; at par for Jain to believe it. But, no. Jain covers the Prahladpuri Temple separately in text without ever positing that the two temples are same, as her plates imply! So, Pl. 7 has been (rightfully) captioned, "The Prahaladpuri temple, Multan. A mosque can be seen behind the ruins." — sourced from Dawn; one can also consult this video-survey of the site by Independent Urdu.

So, what about Pl. 6? It is EA1972.45 of the Ashmolean and has been captioned "An image of Surya found in the ruins of the Sun temple at Multan now at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford." The museum website has nothing on the provenance; nothing in Ahuja (2016) either, which additionally notes that the sculpture might be of Surya or of a Kushan prince or of a Kushan prince modelled on Surya!

TrangaBellam (talk) 16:49, 24 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Kautilya3, any thoughts on the provenance? TrangaBellam (talk) 18:19, 24 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Though Jain hardly cares for the facts. As Nussbaum observed, her histories are free from any and all contradictions, producing a seamless narrative. The book is nothing but a collation of (decently-translated, though mostly by colonial authors) passages from premodern chronicles strung together in an incoherent fashion — without any analytical reading — to portray how Islamic invaders were singularly focused on razing down temples and destroying idols across the span of India. The strategy adopted in the making of TKF comes to my mind. TrangaBellam (talk) 18:58, 24 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, we are talking about Meenakshi Jain? Interesting that she is uploading her own books on archive.org. A true soldier in pursuit of knowledge!

I have never seen an image of the sun temple, not even in ruin. If it was shelled, I presume it is toally gone.

And the museum statue doesn't look like any Surya I know. Why would Surya be squatting anyway? He is always on the move. -- Kautilya3 (talk) 18:46, 27 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, Meenakshi Jain.

Yeah, recent curators are firmly of the belief that it depicts a Kushana prince modeled on the Surya. Going by their provenance records, the statue was obtained from Mathura. Jain obtained the idea about the statue being from Multan, from this blog. TrangaBellam (talk) 20:07, 5 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Cunningham[edit]

Arguably, the worst source of all. He claims:

Local tradition to hold that the Sun Temple was demolished by Aurangzeb.

The temple existed at the site of the Jami mosque.

Nobody was able to point to the site of the temple, a mere five years after the mosque has been cannoned out of existence by Cunningham's (tbh, EIC's) men.

How can both of these be true unless the inhabitants (or more particularly, his informants) were irredeemably stupid having forgotten about the conversion-of-site that happened ~150 years ago?

Archives in Pakistan has a vast collection of unpublished (and even un-cataloged) contemporary manuscripts —both secular and non-secular— about Multan that can help resolve the issue but obviously, the lesser said about scholarship produced in their history depts., the better. TrangaBellam (talk) 20:43, 24 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Geolocation[edit]

Determine the geo-coordinates of Jami Masjid from Cunningham's map. TrangaBellam (talk) 20:48, 5 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

One mosque still exists at 30.199065, 71.473868 but I doubt it to be a far-recent construction than some restoration. Obviusly, given the nature of explosion I do not expect the structure to have survived in any form. Fwiw, Cunningham's site probably corresponds to what is now the Stadium. Some have confused this mosque with the Shahi Eidgah; more at this section.TrangaBellam (talk) 16:54, 6 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]