KONARK SUN TEMPLE
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 façade 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. MORE.........
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