Konark Sun Temple

Konark is a temple in Orissa, which is situated in eastern India. The temple shines in the pages of history as it is famous for its Sun Temple - and Sun naturally shines. ‘Kona’ means ‘Energy corner” and ‘Arka’ means ‘sun’. The sum total meaning hence stands for’ Sun’s Energy Corner’ and the history of the temple is quite interesting. According to temple history, king Champa was suffering from Leprosy and he came to know that worshipping sun was the only way to get rid of the disease. He came to Konark as it was the ‘Sun’s energy corner’ and took a holy dip in the ‘Chandrabhaga', river near the temple. After ablutions, he meditated on Sun god and by the grace of the radiant Sun, he was cured of the disease. As a mark of gratitude to Sun god, he constructed the temple, which was renovated by king Narasimha deva in the 13^th century. It took 200 sculptors and 12 years to complete the beautiful temple. The chariot shaped temple stands tall in-spite-of attacks from alien invaders during historical period. The chariot shape has 24 wheels of 10 feet diameter on all four directions. The front has sculptures of 7 horses pulling the chariot. The temple is famous for its fantastic scene of the sun rays falling on the sun god.

The entrance known as ‘Mukhashala’, the dance auditorium, Chayadevi temple (Chaya Devi happens to be the wife of Sun god), Sculptures of humans, gigantic elephant, sculptures of horse, soldiers and arches of artistic finish are few among the salient features of this temple. ‘Brahma Purnima’ is an important festival, where many devotees throng the temple for a holy dip in the month of January/February. In the month of December the ‘Konark Dance Festival’ adds color to the festivities. Thus the temple enters a festive mood two times a year. The temple is a UNESCO maintained site as it has been awarded the heritage status. The main deity was transferred to ‘Puri’ - yet another temple town in Orissa, in 1696 A.D. as the temple was in ruins by then.