“Multan’s lost Prahladpuri temple: Tracing Holi’s origins and a city’s Hindu past”, First Post, March 08, 2026

“Whenever a person searches for the city of ‘Multan’, the default image that appears is of a tomb, that of a 14th-century Sufi called Shah Rukn-e-Alam. This is an elegant Tughlak-era structure, but the entire image of this tomb is merely a façade obscuring the ancient past of a city that was once a bastion of the Sanatana dharma.

The Multan of today was once called ‘Moolasthana’, and long before it became Multan, it was besieged by Alexander. Centuries later, it was captured by Muhammad bin Qasim in the first Islamic foray into the subcontinent. From Ghaznavid rule to the Delhi Sultanate to the Mughals, the identity of Moolasthana was obliterated entirely, and Multan came into being. By the reign of Iltutmish, in the early 13th century, Hindu rule had been reduced to a memory, and the city’s demographics were changing. With political and military power firmly in Islamic hands, the ancient Sun Temple of Multan was desecrated and eventually destroyed to a point where even its exact location is debatable.

But one temple and its legends endured. The Prahladpuri Temple was dedicated to Narasimha, the man-lion avatar of Vishnu. As per Hindu lore, Prahlad was the son of the demon king Hiranyakashipu. When Prahlad refused to abandon his devotion to Vishnu, his father subjected him to severe persecution. With his devotee under threat, Lord Vishnu stepped out of a pillar in his man-lion incarnation and destroyed the demon king. This legend is associated with the ritual of Holika Dahan, which takes place on the eve of Holi. The Prahladpuri Temple commemorated this event……”

Read full article at firstpost.com