History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c23.11

v1.c23.11

"But the zeal of the Hindus and the avarice of the Mahomedan rulers (for they profited from the offerings of the devotees) restored the sun god and a temple seems to have been built near the old one (as everywhere else in India e. g. at Benares, the Viśveśvara temple and at Ujjain, the old Mahākāla temple or at Ayodhya). Therefore although when Abul Rihan visited the city of Multan there was no temple nor statue, the worship of the sun god was flourishing when Idrisi wrote in 1130. Apparently in his time the Ravi had changed its course and it was now a little river—only an overflow from it in the rainy season. Kazwini in 1263 gives the same account but adds that the great mosque was near the temple i. e. in the very middle of the fort. The temple is described by the French traveller Therenot who visited the place in A. D. 1666. He describes the idol as clothed in red leather with a black face and two pearls for eyes. This was before Aurangzeb had begun his bigoted persecution of the Hindu religion. The final destruction of the temple and the idol is rightly attributed to him and the temple and the sun god exist no more. It may be added that this worship of the sun is Indo-Aryan and not borrowed from the Persians, as some believe. In the first place the Persians do not worship idols and the idol of the sun can only be Hindu. Its covering red leather, its ruby eyes and the halo crown round its head with its curing skin diseases are also Hindu ideas. Even on coins the sun is represented in this way. Thus says Cunningham* (Arch. S. R. Vol. V. p. 122) describing a coin “The reverse is a bust of a god which Princep refers to as the Mithra of the Persians, but which I believe to be the Multan sun god called Āditya. The head is surrounded by rays after the Indian fashion and quite different from the head dress of the Persian Mithra. (This coin Cunningham believes to belong to Dewaij founder of the dynasty which ruled in Sind before Chacha about the year 500 A. D. ).