Original Anatomy of the Temple: Sun Temple Konark, India

Abstract

Sun is considered as the life source as it provides energy to the living beings, without it the water cannot remain pure, plants, animals, human beings cannot survive. In Hinduism, sun holds a prominent position. Along with a heavenly object it is considered as a divine object too. The Sun god is called ‘Surya Dev’ in Hindi and in order to glorify the importance of Sun god, Sun temple at Konark was built by the great devotee of Surya Dev, the great king Narasimhadeva I, of the eastern Ganga Dynasty who defeated the Muslim forces of Bengal and drained a powerful Kingdom during his time in Kalinga now known as Odisha. The paper focuses on the glory of the once built, one of the magnificent example of India’s ancient architecture: ‘Sun temple of Konark’. This paper focuses on the original design of the temple, how it was before its destruction. Currently, the temple lies in ruins. The major part of the temple is destroyed. Now we can see only a small portion of it and mostly the foundations of main sanctum are remaining. However, the remaining portion also showcases excellent examples of architecture. The ornamentation of the temple is highly decorated with sculptures motives, reliefs on the walls of the temple. It showcases the details of the original structure with respect to geometry, planning, spatial arrangement within the temple, sculptures of wheel acting as sundials, carvings on the temple and many more.