Sun Temple on Earth Sun Temple in Konark is of 13th century. It is also known as the Black Pagoda. Konark is in the state of Odisha in India. It is built in the form of an extremely large chariot with richly ornamented and carved stone wheels, pillars and earthwork. You may feel sorry to see that large portion of it is in relics. UNESCO has declared this as a “World Heritage Site” in 1984. It is considered as Seven Wonders of India by “Times of India”. Arka means Sun god, kona means angle or corner. Thus Konark means corner Sun and that is Konark Sun Temple in Orissa. It is the only Sun temple of rich architecture of 13th century. There is one more popular Sun temple in Tamil Nadu known as ‘Suryanar koil’, which is of a recent origin. However it is a tourist attraction in South India. The European sailors for their convenience of identification called Konark Sun Temple as ‘Black Pagoda’ whereas they identified Lord Jagannath Temple at Puri as ‘White Pagoda’ since both these temples were important landmarks for the sailors. The temple is like a chariot. True it the chariot of Sun god, beautifully decorated, giant and ornamented. There are twelve pairs of wheels of ornately carved stone and may be about 10 feet. These twelve are 12 signs of Zodiac namely; Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. The chariot is pulled by fourteen horses. The temple is built in the traditional fashion of Kalinga architecture. The wonder is that the first rays of sun rise strike the principal entrance, as such the eastern part is carefully oriented. The locally famous Khondalite rocks are used to build this temple. It is said that this temple was originally built at the entrance of the Chandrabhaga River. Now it doesn’t appear to be so as the waterline has receded. Several items are ruined. The surviving structures are the dance hall (Nata mandira) and dining hall (Bhoga mantapa). There are two smaller ruined temples. One of them is of goddess Mayadevi Temple, the first consort of Lord Surya i.e. Sun, (11th century AD) at southwest from the entrance of the main temple. The other temple is an unknown Vaishnava god, whereupon the figures of Balarama, Varaha and Thrivikrama are seen. This is an indicative of the fact that it is a temple of Vaishnavite. The peculiarity is that in both these temples the main deities are not to be seen. I saw the collection of fallen sculptures at the Konark Archaeological Museum, It is really heart rendering that such a great architecturally rich temple was destroyed mercilessly by the invaders in 1568. There are several smaller shrines situated in the neighbourhood of the Sun Temple. It is located in the town of Konark, which is 35 km north of Puri on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and 65 km from the capital of the state, Bhubaneswar. There are regular buses, Jeeps and auto-rickshaw to Konark from Puri and journey may take an hour. Official guided tour is available. The nearest rail stations are Bhubaneswar and Puri. Bhubaneswar is the nearest airport. You will certainly enjoy the delicious Oriya cuisine as well as other types of cuisine in the restaurants. Private hotels and restaurants are also available near Konark temple to provide accommodation.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:54:37 +0000
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