Puri 3rd day – ---Trip to Utkal Desam-Puri 2nd day – — Konark Sun temple —- Black Pagoda & Chandrabhagha Beach—-Must visit temple in one’s lifetime—– Part 3 of sight seeing-2015!!!

6^th visit to Konark around 4:30 PM

After lunch at Dhauli we resumed our journey towards the Konark temple, I would suggest you to have a one day & night stay at konark OTDC for its night and morning view. Sun is our visible god who is the main cause of life on earth. He is multi religious God and Almost all religions worship Sun God ever since life existence evolved.

Konark is 31 kilometers from Puri & 65 kilometers from Bhubaneswar city. After a stroll around the Bhubaneswar city, finally on our way back to Puri we visited Konark temple.It’s a small town and has  important ancient port  which is very famous. Meanwhile we crossed Pipili, a small town known for its appliqué works. It is also a junction to Konark & Puri. Konark sun temple is a World Heritage site of UNESCO in 1984. The drive was very good because of good roads and locations.

We were standing at front of the man made engineering marvel of kalingan regime!!!!!! temple!!! 

As Rabindranath Tagore said here the Language of stone surpasses the language of Man........... it’s Magnificent. In India we have only two temples of Sun God, one is Konark and other one is at Arasavalli (Vizag in Andhra Pradesh). Our guide handed over us to OTDC guide at Konark, we have taken entry ticket and camera ticket and started running behind our guide. He introduced himself and he started giving us very valuable information about Konark temple.

Brief History of Konark!!!

The name 'Konark derives from the combination of the Sanskrit words, Kona (corner or angle) and Ark (the sun). This temple was built by Ganga King Narasimha Deva-I in 1278. The temple has been built in the form of a giant ornamented chariot of the Sun god, Surya. It has twelve pairs of elaborately carved stone wheels which are 3 meters wide and is pulled by a set of seven horses (4 on the right and 3 on the left)., 24 wheels represent for nights of the year, eight spokes in each wheel symbolizes day & night into equal parts, the 7 horses are 7 days of the week. Around 1200 architects toiled for 12 years to complete this temple.

Original temple was set on the beach and sea waves used to hit the temple base due to which main temple crumbled down many years ago. As sea waves have receded, we can see the elegant ruins of the temple which is located amidst drifting sand about two kilometers from sea. Konark temple could not be sustained to cut the vagaries of time due to constant exposure to wind, major portion of the temple was collapsed and due to which all the sculptures were damaged.we can also see ruins of the collapsed spire which could not resist the vagaries of time!!!!once stood the great Magnificient monument now the temple is at the edge of collapse. 

The temple follows the traditional style of Kalingan architecture. It is carefully oriented towards the east so that the first rays of sunrise strikes the principal entrance. The temple is divided into four chambers, 1^st bhoga mandapa, 2^nd natamandira (dancing hall), 3^rd Audience hall (Jaganmohana), 4^th sanctum sanctorum (sacred duel) and it has vimana (spire) which is double the size of the Jaganmohana  (audience hall).

The original temple had a main sanctum sanctorum (vimana), which was supposedly 229 feet. European mariners sailing off the coast used the temple's tower for navigation, but dubbed it the Black Pagoda for the frequent shipwrecks that occurred along the coast. They attributed the disasters to the legendary magnets' effect on the tidal pattern. And another reason is Temple was built by three kinds of stones Khondalite ,Chlorite, & laterite.This was the main reason of collapsement of temple because Khondalite stones are affected by the saline in the air.

The main Sanctum is in ruins and Natamandhir (dancing hall) & audience hall (Jaganmohana) 128 feet high in front still intact. Out of 22 subsidiary temples once stood in enclosure, only two have survived Vaishnava and Maya devi Temple.

At the either side of the temple entrance there are colossal figures of royal elephants, horses daily chokes of woman life and erotic sculptures of women on the walls of temple.

Jaganmohana (audience hall)!!!!

During British rule the Audience hall (Jaganmohana) is filled up of sand and stones and sealed all the four entrances by the order of then Lieutenant Governor of Bengal in 1903 A.D in order to save the monument from collapsing.This process of filling took three years to complete i.e 1901-1904 AD. Now the Jaganmohana (audience hall) is closed forever and what lies inside is always a mystery and  is always remained  a question which no one can answer and nobody can enter into it. There is an inscription about sealing off the hall at entrance door.Thanking The governor for saving the monument and left for us to watch the structured beauty of the architecture for future generations.Other wise we would have been seeing the Konark temple  in History books in the form of Pictures… .Audience hall resembles Khajuraho style carvings on the wall with erotic sculptures all around. A question in our mind turning around  why temple holding erotic carvings ??? our guide was very intelligent ,the moment our mind hit with this question by seeing our faces he started answering that the erotic figures gives the behavior of humans desire, and one should enter temple leaving all this thoughts out at the entrance and visit the mighty god.. And another reason may be about the origin of Kamasutra.Love making of all kinds is celebrated except gay relation ship is abondoned by these carvers.Its not only about erotic replica but the temple has parts of every aspect of life depicted in carvings.

during Filling the Jaganmohana (Audience Hall)

 Unique feature of Kalingan Architecture !!!!

At entrance we see unique feature of Kalingan Architecture, two gaint figures of lions prowling over elephants while the elephant crushes a human below symbolizing that lion represents Quest for Power & pride, elephants symbolises for wealth and it crush humans, that is how both these elements can destroy a man. . Our guide said installing these idols here at entrance meant for a reason, devotees who enter into temple should leave the two major influences of Humans ego and quest for power behind and enter the temple for darshan. Another reason behind these idols is to project supremacy of Hinduism over Buddhism. This figure entirely carved on single stone ,length about 8.4 inches and width about 4.9 inches, height about 9.2 inches and weighs about 27.48 tonnes.The sculptures  expressed their displeasure of this change  because At the time of constructing this temple ,there were some clashes  over beliefs which even now rules the universe ,since time  immemorial .

Natyamandir (or Natamandir)!!!!!

This is the place where dancers used to perform dances in homage to the Sun god.Upper part was collapsed but the basal structure remains.Every inch of the mandapa is filled with beautiful women sculptures in different poses like dancing, singing, dressing, playing, cooking, romancing and fighting. Every sculpture takes you back to ancient days  of women life during  Ganga rulers.The dedication of Sculptures can be witnessed here with minute carvings  and not wasting any space available in the walls.

Erotic Scultures on Nata Mandir Walls

Each sculpture narrates a story, clearly explains the activities performed by a woman, 

observe in this picture a women drying her hair after head bath and a duck at her feet trying to drink the droplets falling from the wet hair. And observe her footwear.

In this picture observe the dressing of women with mirror holding in one hand and getting dressed on the other hand .

In this picture we observe erotic sculptures of couples and naga women.

The temple is built in such away that the rays of the sun pass through the Pillars of Natya Mandir  and fall on the idol in the inner sanctum sanctorum.

Konark Temple Wheels !!!!

Our guide informed us that the wheel is called as sundial designed in a way that the shadow of the axle falls on the spokes at different times of day indicating time. The spoke represents one Prahar a period of three hours and first Prahar starts at 03:00 AM, early morning. Each day is divided into eight Prahars. The bigger spokes represent each Prahar (3 hours of time) and smaller spokes indicate minutes in time. He showed us the time on wheel and said us to check the time in our watches and it was same. He showed us the carvings in the middle of wheel where women were involved in daily activities at different timings of a day like cooking, working, romancing, and he explained how these huge stone carvings are attached not with limestone or cement  again proof of legendary activity like they melt iron and pour into that at the links thru small holes made for this. Intelligence upto the mark!!!!Hats Off to the Sculptures  and their patience who has done this marvelous carvings.

The main idol of sun  in Konark,Proof of electro magnetic science was in ancient days!!!!!!!

Now this temple is not housing the main idol of Lord Sun, there is story about why this happened. The temple is built with huge magnets placed in such a way that the idol of Sun God would float in air due to its magnetic effect. These magnets disturbed the compass of sailors  in the  sea, due to this British invaders removed the magnets, which  caused the main sanctum to collapse later the  idol was removed in 16^th century and was placed in the Jagannath temple at Puri for worshipping ,We can still see the idol at Puri even now &  observe idol wearing boots tooo…... . As a proof to this story we found huge iron bars inside the temple and some are displayed in lawns for visitors.

There are so many stories about why the temple crumbled, like one story was major earth quake hit made temple to ruins and one story about invaders demolished the major part of temple but no proof how far they are correct. Today the Jaganmohan (audience hall), standing alone with magnificent glory is the only  witness, which has seen the rise and fall of the temple very closely and it can only say about  what  all happened to this monument  hope  it would have tell us about .At that moment I wished strongly  like King Drutharastra opens his eyes by Lords grace and visualize the Mahabharat War with his eyes,the same way I wanted to watch the konark temple rise and how it has  fallen, sounds little bit crazy right … hope the temple will recover soon and remain safe for our future generations….

Morning ,mid noon,twilght 3 shades of a day!!!!!

We can see 3 sun Gods carved in a way that indicate morning sun ,mid noon sun and evening sun in south ,north & west side of temple in different poses.The southern side Sun god called as Mitra is described as rising sun and it is 8.3 inches in height.The western side sun god called as Punsan is described as Mid day sun and its height is 9.6 inches and the northern side of sun god called Haritasva is described as the setting sun ,its height is 3.58 meters.

  Mid noon sun is looking  glorious on his horse ride.

The evening sun looks tired and about to come out of his duty for the day after working hard all the day for life on the earth,we can see the tiredness on his face very clearly.

Sculptures of two horses adore on the raised platform on the southern side of the courtyard facing sun temple,the two gorgeously carved war horses are 10 feet long and 7 feet height.It describes its massive strength and vigour trampling down a warrior.This figure of war of horses of Konark has been accepted as the symbol of the state government of orissa and her erstwhile martial glory.

A pair of Monolithic elephants on the northern side of the courtyard of sun temple.

Mayadevi temple!!!!

 To the left and behind the main temple is the Mayadevi temple.She is said to be as one among wives of Lord surya (Sun God).Even here we see women and dance poses carvings.

After a stroll  around the temple our guide has ended up his duty ,we paid him and moved out of the temple ,even though not willing to move out of the place !!!! But have to move on as a saying  how divine is the place we go finally we should be back to our pavilion.

Quick info!!!!

• Temple timings 8 am – 6 pm.
• Entry fee is 10/- and 250/- for foreigners
• Photography ( allowed  with  25/-  fee)
• Frequency of buses are well ,no problem for transportion from Bhubhaneshwar  & Puri.
• Hire a guide he gives better information  and see that you hire Government authorized guides,charge you around 200-300 per visit.
• To see the night view of the temple make a stay at Konark it would be a better idea, there are lot of hotels  and resorts of Patanivas (OTDC) for stay and food was tasty too.
• Konark is 31kms away from Puri.

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7^th visit to chandrabhagha beach !!!!!

This was our last place to see out of our travel tour scheme.The road was close to sea coast and it  was on the way to puri located in puri district.

It is the only witness  who has seen the rise and fall of Konark temple.Chandrabhagha derived its name out of a river Chandrabhaga.Chandrabagha beach is the river mouth of Chandrabhagha river.

Brief history !!!!

The Chandrabhaga daughter of a sage killed herself by drowning in this river to protect  her chastity from Sun God.In repentence sun god blessed this river with medicinal properties and named Chandrabhaga.It is believed that  a dip In this river cures Leprosy,Prince Shamba son of Lord Jaganath cured his leprosy here in this river. Usually devotees visit this beach on Magha sapthami to take holy dip in the confluence of river & beach of Chandrabhagha.There is a cultural activity held 7days to honour  Sun God..

It was almost darken we could not go nearer to sea ,but our batch is filled up with old age people in majority so took all of us to a temple near the beach.

However ended the sight seeing trip  very successfully ..finally reached Puri mean while at mid we got down at our place and had dinner and reached hotel with heavy loss of energy conditions.

OOOppppssss !!!! After reaching hotel  I slowy made up my mind to step the staircase to the 4th floor because  no lift facility. Some how I got into our room and relaxed with refreshing the visits of the day.