Konark Sun Temple

The Sun Temple at Konark, on the coast of Odisha in eastern India, was built around 1250 by King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty as a stone chariot for Surya, the sun god. The whole temple is carved as a vehicle: it rests on twenty-four elaborately carved stone wheels, each about three metres across, and was drawn by a team of seven stone horses, matching the seven horses of Surya's chariot in Hindu texts; the twelve pairs of wheels are read as the months of the year. It is the high point of the Kalinga style of temple architecture and has been a World Heritage Site since 1984.

What stands today is the jagamohana, the great assembly hall, rising in three receding tiers of stepped roofs. The main sanctum behind it, whose tower is estimated to have been about 70 m high, collapsed in 1837, and the cause of the temple's decline is still debated. In 1903, to stop the hall from falling, the colonial authorities sealed it and filled it with sand; in September 2022 the Archaeological Survey of India began removing the sand to reinforce the structure from inside. Seen from the sea, the dark mass of the temple was a landmark for sailors, who called it the Black Pagoda as early as 1676, in contrast to the White Pagoda of the Jagannath temple at Puri.

The carving is the reason to come. The wheels are covered in fine relief, down to the medallions on their spokes, and they are often described as working sundials. The platform friezes show elephants, soldiers, hunters, caravans and scenes of daily life; musicians and dancers line the terraces of the roof; and the upper levels hold larger images of deities, among them Durga. Like the temples of Khajuraho, Konark is known for its erotic kama and mithuna sculpture. In front of the hall stands the Nata Mandira, a richly carved dance pavilion, and the complex includes the remains of a dining hall, a kitchen and the older Mayadevi temple, found in 1909 while clearing sand. The temple faces east, so the first light of sunrise strikes its entrance.

Much of the temple's sculpture was taken away over the centuries: the Aruna pillar that stood before the entrance now stands at the Jagannath temple in Puri, and pieces went to the Indian Museum in Kolkata and the British Museum. Fallen sculpture from the site is displayed in the Konark Archaeological Museum, run by the Archaeological Survey of India. The temple appears on the Indian ten-rupee note, and each year pilgrims gather nearby for the Chandrabhaga Mela, around February.

Getting there

The temple is in the town of Konark, about 35 km northeast of Puri and 65 km southeast of Bhubaneswar. Biju Patnaik International Airport (BBI) in Bhubaneswar is about 50 km away, and both Puri and Bhubaneswar are major railway hubs, from which visitors continue by road.