Brief History of Ujjain Mahakal
The gods and Asuras once churned the ocean of Amrita, the nectar of immortality. When the vessel of Amrita appeared, the gods hurried away with it to heaven. Four drops fell on earth, one of them at Ujjain.
Ujjain is praise in many Puranas, specially the Avantika Khand of Skandh Purana. The seat of Mahakaleshwar was venerated as one of the 12 Jyotirlingas and was renowned throughout India by at least the 5th century CE.
Ujjain was the hometown of the great Sanskrit poet - Kalidasa. In his Rahguvamsa, he mentioned Mahakala at Ujjain several times (Rahguvamsa V. 8, VIII. 95, XVIII. 32). Lakshmidhara, in Chapter 10 of his volume on pilgrimage, listed Ujjain as a revered site (Aiyangar 1942).
Kalhana, while re-counting the campaigns of Lalitaditya Muktapida, stated that the king worshipped at the Mahakala shrine in Ujjayini, capital of Avanti in Malava — “The tusks of his elephants were split only by the light of the moon on the diadem of Mahakala, as they marched in rows into Avanti.” (Rajatarangini Book IV. 162, Vol I : 136).
The Arab traveller Gardizi wrote of the deity at Ujjain
They have a place called UJJAYN with a large idol representing (Maha-kal). They takes before him their needs in this lower world and the world beyond and from him learn charms (aza’im). They do wonderful things saying that they all are from (Maha-kal’s) teaching... Some people come to worship him while for several days they refrain from food and humble themselves asking him for their needs. Some take an iron lamp and shaping its bottom like a spear place it on their palm and press it until it has pierced the palm and made a hole in it. Then they light the lamp and kneel down on both knees before the idol with lamentation saying: “accept from us our visit to this house” (Minorsky 1948: 635).
DESTROYED BY ILTUTMISH
Ihe temple was destroyed by Sultan Iltutmish in 1234 ce. Minhaj-us-Siraj, a contemporary chreynicler, described the event in his Tabkat-i-Nasiri,
...he sent, in A.H. 632 (1234 A.D.), the army of Islam towards Malwa and took the fort and city of Bhilsa. There was a temple there which was three hundred years in building. It was about one hundred and five Raz high. He demolished it. From thence he proceeded to Ujjain, where there was a temple of Maha-kal, which he destroyed as well as the image of Bikramajit, who was king of Ujjain, and reigned 1316 years before his time. The Hindu era dates from his reign. Some other images cast in copper were carried with the stone image of Maha-kal to Dehli (Elliot and Dowson Vol. II: 328).
Abd-al Qadir Badauni (1540-1605) also recorded the destruction of the temple by Iltutynish (Badauni Vol. I: 95) Around the same time, Abul Fazl observed the continued sacredness of the site, (Ujjain) is regarded as a place of great sanctity and wonderful to relate at times the river (Shipra) flows in waves of milk. The people prepare vessels and make use of it and such occurrence brings good fortune to the reigning monarch... (Ain-i-Akbari Vol. II 1927: 207).
REBUILT BY PESHWAS
The temple was rebuilt by devotees over the centuries, but repeatedly fell prey to iconoclastic zeal. As a consequence, no part of the pre-twelfth century temple could be identified with certainty (Willis 1988: 276). The present temple was built at the same site by Ramachandra, Diwan of the Peshwa in 1745 ce (Pl. 27) (Patil 1952: 141).
From the eighteenth century also the mahakumbh, Simhastha began to be held at Ujjain every twelve years. It paid singular reverence to the Mahakaleshwar jyotirlinga (Hiuen Tsang in the seventh century ce described a great congregation of pilgrims at the confluence of rivers at Prayag (Beal 1884 Book V: 233-234); Captain Thomas Hardwicke presented the first English account of the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar, in 1796). The memory of Mahakaleshwar had remained undimmed over time; the present structure was built almost five centuries after the destruction by Iltutmish.
— excerpts from “Fight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples Episodes from Indian History” by Meenakshi Jain
