History-Mount abu

Mount AbuMount Abu rises 1000 meters above the plains and its highest point is called Guru Shikhar where there is a small shrine. the hillock drives its name from...



On the boundary separating Gujarat from Rajasthan stands a hill with some of the most outstanding (eleventh to thirteenth century) Jain temples. The somewhat drab exterior of these temples, like oyster shells, do not even hint at the profusion of delicate pure white marble sculptures within. The arid, near desert region of the state of Gujarat held a crucial position on the western projection of the Indian subcontinent that juts into the Arabian sea. Along its coastline were ancient trading posts that brought enormous wealth to the territory. In the tenth century the Solanki Kings (a branch of the Rajput clan) inherited this vast and prosperous land from the Prathiharas. Their reign also coincided with the period when Islamic forces were vying for power over the same trade routes. The great and opulent Somnath temple had been destroyed by the armies of Mahmud of Ghazni in 1025, and although the Solanki rulers were having toward off the armies of the Sultans of Delhi for some time, and despite the threat of iconoclastic destruction, they continued to patronize and sponsor great building activity. During this time the lavishly decorated Hindu Sun temple was built at Modhera (see Ahmadabad) and profusely ornate Jain fortress-temples were constructed on hilltops at Satrunjaya, Mount Girnar, and Mount Abu, and later in the fifteenth century at Ranakpur near Udaipur in Rajasthan.During a very brief period, between the fall of the Somnath temple (1025) and the invasion of Gujarat by Ala-ud-Din Khalji inn 1297, a group of Jain temples were constructed on the Abu plateau. Mount Abu rises 1000 meters above the plains and its highest point is called Guru Shikar (1772 meters) where there is a small shrine. The hillock derives its name from Mythology:

In eons gone by it was a favourite resort of the Hindu gods. A wide abyss mysteriously formed there and the sons of the Himalaya (Lord of the snow-clad mountains) were called to help fill it up. The youngest son, called Nandivardhana (Giver of increasing happiness), was lame and he came riding on the back of his friend Arbuda, a snake. Nandivardhana and the wriggling snake plunged into the hole and filled the great abyss and only his nose poked out on the surface of the earth and became a hill that trembled with the movement of Arbuda. This will which contains Nandi (happiness) was called Arbuda (Swelling tumour) or Abu after the friendly snake.