A travelogue
A travelogue
The Sun temple at Konark is very magnificent edifice highlighting temple architecture in the East of India on the shores of Bay of Bengal in the State of Orissa. The place lies north to the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The nearby town, Puri, is famous for the temple of Jagannadh (whose name crept into the English Dictionary as ‘juggernaut’ that conveys a feature of unstoppable thing as the chariot of the Deity there).
The stone temple is an amazing monument built in the 13th Century, comparable to the best of sculptures that humanity ever created. The entire temple is in the form a colossal chariot with seven horses and twelve wheels, carrying the sun god. The place is also famous for exquisite handicrafts, stone carvings, bamboo articles, hand-woven textiles, terracotta, paintings, lacquer ware, paddy corn and coconut fiber toys, appliqué work etc. The temple lies some 30 KMs away from the famous beach and temple of Puri. Bhubaneswar, the state capital and Puri in Orissa are called a Temple triangle in the East of India. I was in a great hurry and rounded up the three places on a Sunday by road. This triangle can be likened to that of Golden triangle for tourists in the north of India that consists of Agra, Jaipur and Delhi.
Well. What impressed me most were the mute stones transformed into living expressions of human form oozing Eros on the walls of Konark Sun temple. Though in ruins and preserved by the Government the Godless temple is still magnificent and speaks volumes about the temple architecture prevailing 8 centuries ago before the central stone of the temple fell for reasons not established. The word Konark means angle of sun. The design of arches and corridors of the temple including its exteriors and interiors lay in such a way to welcome sun in the morning, afternoon and evening and the moods of figurines on the walls match different phases of the day. I found quite a bit of erotica sprinkled in the multitude of carvings of human beings and animals. It is an erotic poem on stones that is complete thought the temple itself is incomplete.
I contained the pictures I took in my following blog, those of the figures carved on the stone wheels of chariot and on the outer walls.
कोप्य्रिघ्त