APPRECIATION OF HISTORICAL LANDMARK

KONARK SUN TEMPLE, ODISHA, INDIA

(Image: Konark Sun Temple, Clicked in October, 2019 by Nihar Desai from Samsung Galaxy A50)

In this article, I am taking an example of The Konark Sun Temple as an ‘appreciation of

historical landmark’. The Konark Sun Temple is located in Puri district of Odisha, India. The
Konark Sun Temple was built in 1250 A.D. by King Narsimhadeva-1, who was a ruler of Eastern
Ganga dynasty. The main intention of building the sun temple was to dedicate it to Hindu Sun
God ‘Surya’. The main vision of King Narsimhadeva-1 was also to show his power and splendor
to people of his kingdom and also to other kingdom as well. As I mentioned above, this Sun
Temple was built to dedicate it to Suryadeva. ‘Konark’ is combination of two Sanskrit word,
‘Kona (angle or corner)’ and ‘arka (sun)’. It was supposed to design in such a way that at sunrise,
the first rays of sun fall on the entrance of the temple. This temple is one of the best examples of
Kalinga architecture, which have a 100ft high chariot of ‘Suryadeva’ being pulled by horses and
gigantic wheels. The most amazing thing of this Sun Temple is the gigantic chariot, including 7
horses and 24 wheels are carved out from single stone. ‘Khondalite stone’ is used for carvings
and huge structure of this temple. Also chlorite and laterite stones are used for other important
elements of temple like door, window, platform, staircases etc. In my point of view, I am very
impressed with this gigantic structure. The two main points which I want to mention here is that
they carved out huge chariot from just single huge stone and other point which becomes more
important is that they carved out a very hard stone for this temple in 13th century without having
any useful technology at that time. There are many appeals and regional talk of this temple from
local peoples as well as tourist guides. One of the most special appeals of this temple is that
Lord Shiva himself worshipped the sun here to atone for his sins. There is also one another
appeal is that airplanes always become directionless when they fly over the dome of temple. By
above paragraphs, I can say that the architect and workers of that temple had tried to convey
the meaning of this Sun temple according to ‘Hindu religion’ and ‘Vastushastra’ very well. Yes
there is one thing that because of natural disasters and attack of other dynasty, the temple
fragmented many times, but still we should appreciate the hard work of architect and workers
for their dedication towards Sun temple.

-By Nihar Desai

Sources: https://www.yatra.com/indian-monuments/puri/konark-sun-temple

https://www.livehistoryindia.com/story/amazing-india/sun-temple-konark/