Diana Preston IV.

This is coolbert:

Somnath!

Continuing with extracts and commentary from the "Dark Defile":

"as explicitly commanded by Ellenborough, the sandal wood gates of the ancient tomb of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni, supposedly looted from the Indian [Hindu] temple of Somnath centuries earlier. He hoped to gain great kudos by returning them to India . . . . Ellenborough also issued a note to the princes [Hindu] of India glorifying the return to India of the gates of Somnath, 'so long the memorial of your humiliation'. The gates were eventually discovered to be not the originals but later replicas . . . and they were ignominiously dumped in a warehouse in Agra."

That Afghan Islamic conqueror Mahmud of Ghazni [1024] having destroyed the Hindu temple of Somnath, shattering and carrying away the remnants of the sacred lingam, additional items of loot to include the sandal wood doors also of esteemed value.

Ellenborough the British commander in the aftermath of the January 1842 debacle leading a counter-offensive the occupation of Ghazni and Kabul attained, retribution high on the agenda.

Doors recovered and repatriated to India but found to be merely replicas and not the originals as had been hoped!

The terrorist assassin Daood Gilani [David Headley] of Mumbai infamy during his reconnaissance missions scouting that current temple of Somnath.

In that part of the world [the Indian sub-continent], memories last a long time!!

coolbert.