Kanhad Dev Sonigara was a Rajput

Rajput

A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

 Maharaja who ruled Jalore

Jalore

Jalor, also known as Jalore , is a city in Rajasthan state of western India. It is the administrative headquarters of Jalor District.- Geography :...

, in the present-day India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state of Rajasthan

Rajasthan

Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

, in the 13th century CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

. He belonged to the Sonigara sect of the Chauhan

Chauhan

Chauhan, Chouhan or Chohan , , - is a clan who ruled parts of northern India in the Middle Ages. The clan is most famous for Rajput King Maharaja Prithviraj Chauhan...

 clan of Rajputs.Ambliara was the capital of the erstwhile Princely State of Ambliara Songara Dynasty (also spelled Amliara or amliyara ), founded in 1619 by Maharaj Krishnadasji, a descendant or son of Jalore Queen Rani Popadevi of Jalore. This state was a third class state under Mahi Kantha Agency in Gujrat and merged with the Union of India on March 10, 1948.

In 1298, Ala ud din Khilji's Mongol general Ulugh Khan asked permission of Kanhad Dev to march through Jalore to conquer Gujurat and destroy the temple at Somnath

Somnath

The Somnath Temple located in the Prabhas Kshetra near Veraval in Saurashtra, on the western coast of Gujarat, India, is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of the God Shiva. Somnath means "The Protector of Moon God". The Somnath Temple is known as "the Shrine Eternal", having been destroyed...

. When Kanhad Dev refused a war ensued. In 1299 Ala ud din sacked the temple and broke the Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 lingam

Lingam

The Lingam is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples....

 that had been worshipped there. He was carrying the broken pieces back to Delhi when he was attacked and defeated by Kanhad Dev Sonigara's armies. Kanhad Dev's son Biramdeo (Viramdev) and trusted general Jaitra Deora were in charge of his army. The broken pieces of the Shiva lingam were recovered. Kanhad had them washed in water from the Ganges river, which was regarded as sacred, and then placed within various Shiva temples in and around Jalore. This story is recounted in the 16th century ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s Padmanabhama and Kanhad Dev.