Who ever see the Konrak Sun Temple immediately the question strikes in mind why in such a deserted place this enormously beautiful and outstanding sculpturing took place.
Konark Sun Temple should not be evaluated an extraordinary monument as Tajmahal but it should be taken as one of the most elegant, beautiful and exotic monument sculpture of Orissa. This temple was built in the span of 16 years while about 1200 major sculpture with their uncounted labour helpers around the clock worked in the 13th century under the kingdom of king Narsingh Dev.
Konark is the result of the vast experience of long 1200 years of Orissa builders. From the time of the king Kharvel whose time is 1st century BC to the 13th century AD Orissa builders create uncounted beautiful monument in forms of bridges, Sea Shores buildups and temples. No doubt Konark is the nectar of all these experiences. Whenever the time took a turn and feelings took over the mind, then miracle occurs.
When we see the resent condition of the Konark is a matter of shame. Although it is the most glorious and important monument of Orissa and it is about 700 years old monument. When oil in the lamp come to end it burns with the extreme strength like wise this temple is also becoming extreme charm among tourists and historians. When one see it feels that beauty, sadness, melancholy, emotions, frustration, human effort and human defeat strikes in mind all together.
Away from the hectic of human race, far and abandoned in sandy golden beach this monument stand sad and silent as the hero of a tragedy drama is dying alone. When people see this more often they think how and why it is built in such a place!
King Nardev Singh was a great and enable king. He spent the most of his 16 years tax money to build this monument. More then 1200 expert builders worked day and night. Why he spent so much money and time for this? Why this monument was built far away from the capital and his palace? These are some of the questions which are still unanswered.
May be the king and builders wanted to create a miracle and mysterious monument and they succeed in this too. The enormous size of the temple and the clarity of the figures carved on the walls of the temple. Imagination of the sculpture maker about the mood, ornaments, face and figure is extraordinary. On the other hand a silent control, lively figures, closeness to the life style, soft and clear expressive faces and the height of fantasy make the spectators and the cultural experts speechless. No one could resist the natural beauty of the monument.
For lovers of art it may be an abandoned and antique sculpture but for the people of Orissa it is more then a monument. For them it is nothing but the famous sun temple. In the month of January and February on the seventh day to full moon celebrated the sun festival. On that day thousand of devotees took bath in the pond about 1 mile far from the temple. That shallow pond is assumed to be the remains of the «Chandrbhaga River» which was situated near the sun temple at that time. It is said that Chandrbhaga River was so deep that transportation through ship was quite common.
It is really a unforgettable experience to watch sunrise on that day. A red big ball rises from the deep blue sea. In early morning devotees offers their prayers and perform rituals. In local language it is compared with newborn calf which is quite similar to the comparison given in the «Richas» (form of old literature given in Ved). Devotees after that go to the old and broken Sun temple Konark and perform rituals for «Nav Graha» (Nine Planets) and go back to their homes back. Sun Temple ones again became solitary and alone.
This festival is hardly has relation with the sun temple. Ones when son of lord Krishna «Samba» was cursed for long life sickness, he prayed on the bank of Chandrbhaga river and here itself he got the blessing from the Sun God for health. From that day this festival started. But this area is famous for the blessing of Sun God from far earlier time from that. Konark is a complex word with two segments i.e. Kon, which means angle, and Ark, which means the Sun God. The total means this is the place or the angle where the Sun God changes his angle of rise in every 6 month. This place is also called «Ark Shetra» means the area of the Sun God.
People says that when this temple was built one magnet of about 50 ton was put in the main temple under the statue of Sun God to concentrate the magnetic field of the earth. The other view was that at the time of King Narsingh Dev through Chandrbhaga river ships transportation in the deep of his kingdom was a common feature. From this point ships set sail to Shri Lanka, Southeast Asia for business. Definitely without water transportation heavy load, construction material, food for the people busy in construction of the temple was impossible.
In the «Jagmohan» part of the temple, ship with animals and other goods gives witness of a full fledge business port at the end of the river. Puri for Jagannath or Vishnu area, Bhuvneshwar for Shiva and Jajpur for Shakti area were famous and were constructed with various temples while Konark was having no big or important temple. So King Narsingh Dev decided to make a remarkable temple so that his name would be known for long. He ruled Orissa from 1238 to 1264. Orissa was the only free Hindu nation as Muslim regime was stretching arms all over north, east Bangal and most of the south India.