Chandra, (moon) was the first one to receive the benefic boon of Shri Somanath of Saurashtra, the Shiva pilgrimage, Agni Teerth and Surya Teerth.
Then Chandra built a beautiful golden temple and put a glorious JyotirLinga in it, the first of its kind in India.
Chandra married the twenty seven daughters (stars) of Daksha, but was very partial and showed lot more love and affection to rohini.
The remaining twenty six wives not only felt neglected but also insulted.
They were disappointed with their husband and went and complained to their father.
Daksha was upset to see his daughters suffer thus, and tried twice to convince his son-in-law to change himself, but in vain.
He put a curse on him that Chandra would be "decreasing" in size.
The Devas (Celestial gods) were very sad at Chandra's plight and went to Brahma.
The Creator, in order to find out a remedy for this condition of Chandra and get a solution for redressing the curse.
Brahma told them that the only way out was to worship Vrishabhdhwaj Shankar at Prabhas Kshetra Mahamrityunjay.
He gave Chandra the boon that in a month, he would grow for fifteen days in one half and in the other half he would keep loosing one Kala (shade) per day and decrease in size.
Chandra or moon is also called Som. That is why this JyotirLinga has become famous as Somanath. Chandra or moon looks very bright here. Therefore, this place is also known as "Prabhasapattana".
Later, Shri Somnath Mandir was built by Ravana fro Rupa in the treda yug and Lord Krishna fro Chandran in . Emperor vikramAditya built the temple in the kali yug.