KONARK
Location : Konark, Orissa
Also Known As : Black Pagoda & Konarak
Built By : King Narsingha Deva
Presiding Deity : Surya Or The Sun God

THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN
The Sun Temple of Konark stands on a deserted stretch of coast in Orissa,
overlooking the Bay of Bengal. For centuries this once lofty building was used
by sailors navigating the shore. They called it the "Black Pagoda," to
distinguish it from the "White Pagoda"- the famous Jagannatha temple twenty
miles (32-km) up the coast in Puri.

Battered by storms and sea winds, nibbled by salt and sand, the temple seems to
be gradually returning to its source, like some majestic galleon that is slowly
but surely slipping under the waves. Now the Sun Temple stands nearly two miles
(3-km) from the sea, but originally the Bay of Bengal came to within a few
yards of the walled enclosure. In times of storm during the monsoons, flood
tides still advance menacingly toward it.

The Legends
No one really knows why a temple was erected here, but there are many legends
to account for its appearance. The most popular concerns 'Samba', the son of
Lord Krishna. Samba was inordinately proud of his beauty. So proud that he once
made the mistake of ridiculing a celebrated sage, 'Narada', who was not
renowned for his looks. Narada was not amused.

Always mischievous, he decided to have his revenge on the arrogant boy. He
managed to lure the unsuspecting Samba to the pool where his stepmothers, the
luscious consorts of Krishna, were bathing in joyful abandon. When Krishna
heard that his son had become a peeping tom, he was furious and cursed him with
leprosy. Realizing later that the innocent boy had been tricked by Narada's
cunning, Krishna was mortified.

But he could not revoke his course; all he could do was advise his son to
worship the sun god 'Surya', healer of all diseases, and hope for a cure. After
twelve years of penance and worship, Samba was at last instructed by Surya to
go and bathe in the sea at Konark. He did so and was cured of his awful
affliction. Samba was so delighted that he decided there and then to erect a
Surya temple on these spot. It was called "Konark", "Place of the Sun," from
which the modern name comes.

Historical Facts Vs Myths
The temple was actually built by a king of the medieval 'Ganga' dynasty,
"Narasingha Deva". The king was popularly known as "Langulia", "the one with a
tail." It is possible that he built the temple as a supplication to Surya to
remove a spinal swelling of some sort.

In the eyes of his subjects, such an act would imply that 'Narasingha' was a
descendant of, or even a reincarnation of, Krishna's very own son. It was not
unheard of for kings to align themselves in this way with the great heroes of
antiquity or even with gods. To discover the roots of one's family tree
securely planted in heaven could be a distinct advantage.

A less romantic explanation is that Narasingha built the temple to commemorate
his victories over the Muslims, who were pushing into Orissa from the west.
During his reign he won at least three resounding victories over the invaders.

The Festivities
In fact, Orissa has had a history of independence and military honor second
only to that of the Rajputs. Since earliest times the main annual festivals of
the Hindu calendar in this part of the country have been military, rather than
religious, affairs.

Until recently the autumn festival of 'Dusserah', celebrated all over India as
a worship of Durga, consort of Shiva, was an aboriginal hunting festival in
Orissa. Reserved forests were thrown open to the general public for hunting;
the ancestral weapons were brought out and worshipped in each village, and the
warlike past of the community was relived in ancient myth and songs.
Leadership, bravery, and strength have always been the valued qualities here.

The Ancient Orissan Armed Force
Under the Ganga dynasty Orissa had a peasant militia of three hundred thousand
men, with fifty thousand foot and ten thousand horses, and an elephant regiment
twenty-five thousand strong. She was relied upon by the central power in times
of crisis, her troops constituting what was, in effect, a national army.

Even the Muslims grudgingly admitted that a Ganga king could, at a moment's
notice, take the field with eighteen thousand men. And it was in Orissa that
the first armed rebellions against the British took place in the early 19th
century. This concern with martial arts invaded even the religious sphere. The
priests at the Jagannatha temple in Puri were renowned for their physical
prowess and exercised daily in the famous religious gymnasia. The 'Pandits'
were accomplished and respected wrestlers.

Many of the common Orissan surnames, such as 'Dalai' and 'Senapati', originated
in Ganga times. Interestingly, the higher posts in the army were held by the
priestly Brahmin caste; thus 'Bahinapati' is a common Brahmin name.

Narasingha himself was more renowned for his valor than his piety. This,
combined with Orissa's impressive military history, supports the theory that
Konark was a colossal tower of victory, erected to the sun god in thanks for
his earthly representative's victory over the dreaded Muslim. The profusion of
carvings, on and around the temple, depicting military subjects, seems to
confirm it.

At the end of the 16th century, Konark was famous far beyond the borders of
Orissa. By then, it had become a great center of pilgrimage and attracted the
praise of even such a discriminating critic as Abul Fazl, the court biographer
of Emperor Akbar the Great.

All that now remains from those glory days is the ruined half of the main
temple. Nevertheless, this mere fragment of Konark's former glory constitutes
what is often considered to be the most impressive temple in northern India.

History Of The Temple
The Entrance to the temple is done from the Vantage Point, which is situated on
the south wall of the complex, behind the two rearing figures of the Royal
Horses. From here one can get the best view of the site as a whole. The temple
originally consisted of three parts: sanctuary surmounted by a colossal spire
tower, porch and the detached Hall of Dance. A wall surrounded the whole
complex.

An Abode of Sun God
The temple was conceived as a massive chariot lying on an east-west axis, in
which the Sun god, Surya, was pulled across the sky. Each day his journey
brought life and light back to earth and his procession was a continual
rejoicing. The chariot had twenty-four wheels, and was pulled by seven horses,
representing the seven days of the week and the seven sages who govern the
constellations.

Sun worship is central to India. The standard daily prayer of the Brahmins is
the 'Gayatri', addressed to the sun, and on an esoteric level, the sun
symbolizes the divine Self within. The idea of procession is also an integral
part of temple worship. Deities are shown to the public on feast days and
festivals and are pulled around the town in brightly decorated chariots. The
most famous of these processions takes place every July, in nearby Puri. This
is the festival of the Jagannatha Temple. A form of Vishnu, Shri Jagannatha, is
paraded in an enormous chariot.

To the west of the Sun temple stand the remains of two earlier structures: the
"Vaishnava temple" and the "Mayadev temple". Thus looking from left to right
across the site, one can trace a progression beginning with the earliest
structure, the Vaishnava temple, and ending with the latest, the Hall of Dance.

Gradual Collapse Of A Magnificent Monument
The 'Shikhara' must have been extremely impressive, since it dominated the rest
of the complex. Various theories have been put forward to explain its collapse:
earthquakes, subsidence, lightning. In fact, both man and nature had a hand in
it.

According to the historical records the Shikhara was originally crowned by a
finial in traditional Hindu style: a water pot on top of a heavy spheroid base.
The 'Kalasha' was made of copper, most probably gilded, and the 'Amla' of
stone. The 'Kalasha' was removed at the beginning of the 17th century by the
Muslims, who thought it was gold and wanted to melt it down. The Amla
underneath it was made of several massive blocks of stone, clamped together by
iron dowels.

The very weight of the stone served to keep the corbeled walls of the spire in
position by counteracting their tendency to fall inward. But when the Kalasha
was removed, the plaster covering the dowels was damaged and exposed and, over
time, washed away. The iron underneath now began to erode, disintegrate, and
finally fell apart. As a result, the stone slabs fell down, damaging the rest
of the building and exposing further capping stones to the ravages of the
elements. Worse still, the essential tensile balance of the spire was
destroyed. There was nothing to prevent its crumbling. Remnants of the Amla
coping stone now lie to the north of the porch.

Several years before the removal of the copper Kalasha, the local maharaja had
removed the cult image of Surya from the sanctuary. It was taken to Puri, for
safety from the approaching Muslim armies. Once the presiding deity had gone,
the temple was shorn of its spiritual power, and local interest in it would
have declined.

Added to which, the sanctity of the temple would have been further violated by
the entry of the Muslims when they came to steal the Kalasha. Though there is
no record of any iconoclastic destruction, their very presence inside the
hallowed ground of the temple would have violated its sanctity. All in all,
there was little reason for the local people to prevent the place falling into
total neglect, which is just what happened.

The decay was gradual. Even in 1848 a corner of the tower still stood to a
considerable height. In 1820 this was about still stood to a considerable
height. In 1820 this was about 120 feet (35m) according to the Scots traveler,
A. Stirling, who saw it then. The English architect Markham Kittoe, writing in
1838, estimated it had diminished to "80 or 100 feet, and has at a distance the
appearance of a crooked column." But this brave remnant was not to last long.

Ten years later, in 1848, it was blown down in a ferocious gale. When the
Indian writer Rajendralala Mitra visited the site after another twenty years,
even the sanctuary over which the proud Shikhara had towered was reduced to "an
enormous mass of stones, studded with a few 'Pipal' trees here and there."

The porch-that part of the temple still standing-suffered more from the greedy
hands of man than from the elements. The chief villain of the piece was a raja
of Kurda, who took a particular liking to the chlorite slabs that decorated the
fagade of the building. Nor were the local people averse to helping themselves
to the iron clamps, for the sake of the metal. Fortunately, this vandalism was
stopped by order of the government in 1838.