Ban Stambh (Arrow Pillar)

On the southern terrace of the Somnath temple, where the last stone steps meet the spray of the Arabian Sea, stands a slender stone column known as the Ban Stambh, or "Arrow Pillar." Easy to miss among the grander architecture of the Jyotirlinga shrine, this modest marker rewards travellers who pause to read its inscription — a single, poetic assertion about the temple's place on the map of the world.

• It rises from the seaward parapet, topped with an arrow that points due south, out across the open water.
• The Sanskrit inscription on the pillar declares that no landmass lies in a straight line between this shore and the South Pole — an unbroken corridor of ocean running from Prabhas all the way to Antarctica.
• Whether read as ancient geographical intuition or as devotional poetry, the claim has fascinated visitors for generations, and it is repeated by guides and pilgrims as one of Somnath's most memorable pieces of lore.
• The precise date of the original pillar is uncertain, and the inscription is best appreciated as traditional heritage rather than as surveyed fact; even so, a glance at a globe shows that the southern Arabian Sea does indeed open onto a vast, largely uninterrupted expanse of water.
• For most visitors the Ban Stambh is a brief but memorable stop woven into a tour of the temple complex.
• The terrace here offers one of the finest sea views in Somnath, with waves breaking against the rocks below and gulls wheeling overhead.
• Late afternoon is the loveliest time, when the light softens and the horizon glows before sunset.
• It is a quiet, contemplative corner — a place to stand at the edge of the subcontinent and imagine the ocean stretching, in the pillar's words, to the very ends of the earth.
• Photography of the sea and the pillar is permitted, though the temple's own rules on phones and cameras inside the shrine still apply.
• For a meal afterwards, the lanes around the Somnath temple are lined with pure-vegetarian kitchens serving the hearty Kathiyawadi and Gujarati food of the region.
• The Shree Somnath Trust runs a simple bhojanalaya (annakshetra) near the complex where pilgrims can eat a plain, satvik thali at a nominal cost.
• Several pure-veg Gujarati thali restaurants along the temple road serve unlimited thalis heaped with rotli, shaak, dal, bhaat, farsan and jaggery-sweetened kadhi, while smaller pure-veg eateries offer khichdi, fafda-jalebi and masala chai.
• As this is a sacred pilgrimage town in dry Gujarat, food near the temple is overwhelmingly vegetarian and no alcohol is served; when in doubt, choose a clearly signposted "pure veg" thali house rather than the seafood-oriented restaurants closer to Veraval's fishing harbour.