#A-Z Challenge : Konark- The Sun Temple

Visits to Orissa has always been pleasurable.  When my dad was posted to the capital of Chattisgarh -Raipur and when were done with exploring all the places there, by all I mean, we even went to the Naxalite areas, not because we wanted to , because there were many good places to visit there, and with the Government of India sticker in the car.

For those who don’t know , Naxalites bomb the government vehicles. And our driver had put that sticker to avoid parking fees and tolls.  In other words, it is bad! Anyways we survived, thanks to my mom’s prayers! And now that we have survived, places exhausted, we planned to visit the neighboring state- Odisha. Phew! Flashback’s over.

Odisha has many things to offer, but the best part is planning gets easier here. The Jagganath temple in Puri is famous and is a must visit. Chilika Lake – Lucky you if you spot a dolphin. But the experience of warm wind blowing and just blue everywhere is amazing.. pacific in fact.  I feel like a Wikipedia already! No offence to you Wiki , I love you. But I want to be better than you.

Okay so coming back to the sun temple in Konark. It is also in the district of Puri, the best time would be in the evening , after 3PM. Don’t stay in Konark. Bhubaneswar or Puri would be a better place to stay and you can commute to the sun temple from there.

The sun temple in Konark is a UNESCO world heritage site. Let us begin our journey. You are outside the famous sun temple, and the heat welcomes you. Then the saga of choosing a guide comes. You choose a guide certified by the government of India and move ahead to get amazed and lost in the history and a ravishing architecture. Blame my dad’s job for my love of history and architecture. 

Your guide will tell you that the temple has a great aura of power that comes from two very powerful magnets said to have been built in the tower. The magnets allowed the king’s throne to hover in mid-air. 

The temple is in the form of  a chariot with twelve pairs of stone-carved wheels representing the 12 months of the year. He introduces you to a  team of seven galloping horses which are stone-carved of course and the seven horses mean the seven days.

Then he goes running here and there, points the mighty sun and the wheels and tells you the time and claims he is telling the time without looking at his watch. I did not understand what he did, though. I think because the temple is oriented towards the east and the sun rays fall in the main entrance so some sun dial kind of principle he used.

The main entrance is guarded by two huge lions, the carvings are amazing. The latter cravings speak about the chronicles of Kalinga life, few cravings erotic. Don’t go without a guide although they charge more because the history is complicated and an amalgamation of truth and facts. Well, even history is , right ?