Here comes another road and another heritage destination yet to be explored. The ride to konark begins earlier the morning itself as the temple is best recommend during tge sunrise so one can witness the first ray of sun striking sculptures there.
Apart from Being a UNESCO world Heritage site, the Konark temple is designed as a giant chariot on 12 pairs of wheels. Built facing east so as to make sure the first rays of the sun hit the entrance, the wheels themselves are designed as sundials which are accurate enough to predict the time of the day to the minute. That’s some massive architectural precision undertaking for the 13th century, don’t you think?
The 13th century sun temple, known for its erotic cravings is about 65kms from the capital city of the state and 35kms from the Puri town. So it took us one hours drive from Puri only to found it crowded with tourists. Even this temple follows the Odisha style of temple architecture, through much of the original structure has been collapsed and survived only in parts; the main structure seen today is only the mandapa. The temple referred to as the Black Pagoda, by the European sailors, served as an important navigational landmark and is part of Odisha’s golden triangle: the Jagannathpur temple at Puri and Bhubaneshwar, and the Konark temple.
There are some interesting facts about the temple, some claims it was never completed and left half ways while others says it was completed in about 12 years during the resign of Narashimhadeva 1. There are several legends related to Konark,that takes you back to the mythology. Apparently one of the story says that the king identify this place as it was once estuary of the river Chandrabhaga where it joined the sea. Today however the sea is retreated and the river is dead as well. Yet again another story, The story of Dharmapada, the legend also explains why the temple was never used in its entire history and also gives a logical story of why it fell apart.
There are some interesting facts about the temple, some claims it was never completed and left half ways while others says it was completed in about 12 years during the resign of Narashimhadeva 1. There are several legends related to Konark,that takes you back to the mythology. Apparently one of the story says that the king identify this place as it was once estuary of the river Chandrabhaga where it joined the sea. Today however the sea is retreated and the river is dead as well. Yet again another story, The story of Dharmapada, the legend also explains why the temple was never used in its entire history and also gives a logical story of why it fell apart.
This temple exudes an aura of so much more. One can't feel amazed and mystified with what it would have been in peak days after completion. This temple with metals and magnet reeked to me of a full fledged yantra of some short. A massive yantra dedicated to the sun, I can only be humble by its immensity and possibility. I was getting an idea why all of the awesome Indian Temples this one got the UNESCO world heritage site tag back in the 1980s. The wall cravings, their details are just meant to take your breath away.
This temple exudes an aura of so much more. One can't feel amazed and mystified with what it would have been in peak days after completion. This temple with metals and magnet reeked to me of a full fledged yantra of some short. A massive yantra dedicated to the sun, I can only be humble by its immensity and possibility. I was getting an idea why all of the awesome Indian Temples this one got the UNESCO world heritage site tag back in the 1980s. The wall cravings, their details are just meant to take your breath away. Everything about the sun temple at Konark is an ode to time. On the walls of the temple, you can see three images of Surya captured at various of the day. The temple is filled with carvings. There are several explicit scenes of passion that adorn the walls. There are friezes depiciting scenes from daily social life to even war scenes. Birth and death are captured in this internal cycle.
If you thought Khajuraho was the only temple to house erotic sculptures, maybe you should take a look at the Surya Mandir too. The entire massive scale of the temple took just a little over 12 years to build. That’s some speed for a rock cut temple.
The temple had a pretty unique way to teach morality to the coming generations. Two enormous lions at the entrance are shown crushing an elephant, beneath which a man lies. The lion and the elephant are supposed to depict pride and wealth, respectively. The sculptures go on to how these can bring about the fall of a human being.
I had never seen a temple with so much cravings before and of course we spent hours going through different sculptures and analyzing their meanings. Our favorites were, of course, the highly erotic sculptures which the place is already famous for. SE of these were straight forward while some were taking time to interpret. A few were too stunning to b believed while some were quite controversial enough as animals and childrens were part of some cravings. But then it's not just the erotica which moved us, everything at the temple takes your breath away. You can even climb up and see a few portion from top. Even I found the climb up bit adventures as the saree clad aunties didn't venture that far up. 😉😌
As it was late afternoon exploring the whole temple complex, we decided to relax and have lunch at the Chandrabhaga beach as we plan to visit the museum next day.
