Place · lost temple mound · Pakistan
Prahlādpuri & the Multan Sun Temple
Also known as Multan — Prahlādpuri & the Sun Temple
The citadel mound at Multan carried two famous temples and has neither now. The Aditya or Sun temple was described by Xuanzang in the seventh century and by al-Bīrūnī in the eleventh — an idol of wood cased in red leather, hung with jewels, drawing pilgrims and enormous offerings. Prahlādpuri, a Narasimha temple whose foundation is ascribed to Prahlāda himself, stood on the same mound beside Bahāuddin Zakariya's shrine. The mound today holds the Sufi tombs and an empty platform.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Qualified / contested — The temple mound and 1992 destruction are documented; exact placement and destruction sequence rely on written accounts rather than excavation.
- Location
- 30.200, 71.477 (approximate)
Worth knowing
Arab governors of Multan are recorded as keeping the Sun temple deliberately intact and threatening to break the idol whenever a Hindu army approached, which al-Bīrūnī says is why the city was repeatedly spared: the shrine worked as a hostage.
The Sun temple's exact position on the mound and the sequence of its destructions come from Arab geographers and later accounts rather than excavation; Prahlādpuri's ruin in 1992 is documented.
Connections (3)
- Site adjacencyBahāuddin Zakariya & Rukn-e-Ālam
One mound at Multan carried all of it. The Aditya or Sun temple that Xuanzang and al-Bīrūnī describe stood on the citadel; Prahlādpuri, the Narasimha temple ascribed in legend to Prahlāda, stood on the same high ground; and Bahāuddin Zakariya's shrine and Rukn-e-Ālam's tomb were built there from the thirteenth century. The temples are gone — the Sun temple through successive medieval destructions, Prahlādpuri in 1992 — and the Suhrawardi tombs remain, so the mound now presents only the last of its several religious orders.
- AnalogueMārtānd Sun Temple
The two great sun temples of the north-west, and both are ruins. Mārtānd in Kashmir was built by Lalitāditya in the eighth century and pulled down, by most accounts, under Sikandar Būtshikan around 1400; its colonnade still stands on the Karewa plateau. Multan's Aditya temple was older and richer, and is known only from description — Xuanzang's, and al-Bīrūnī's account of a wooden idol cased in red leather and hung with jewels. Between them they mark how substantial solar worship was in the north-west before either survived to be photographed.
- In the same set asKonark Sun Temple
Konark, Modhera and Multan were the three sun temples whose wealth was proverbial, and their fates diverge instructively. Konark's tower fell but its platform and sculpture survive as a world heritage site; Modhera keeps its tank and hall; Multan's is known only from Xuanzang, al-Bīrūnī and the Arab geographers, who agree that its offerings were the city's chief revenue. Multan was also the only one of the three that stood in a city under Muslim rule for centuries while continuing to receive Hindu pilgrims.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Prahladpuri Temple” and “Multan Sun Temple”. al-Bīrūnī, Tārīkh al-Hind; Xuanzang, Da Tang Xiyu Ji; Punjab archaeology department records.
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