The Konark Sun Temple

Twenty-four stone wheels that are working sundials, accurate to the minute

The Konark Sun Temple stands near the Bay of Bengal in Odisha, about 35 km north-east of Puri, and it was built as a chariot. King Narasingha Deva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty raised it around 1250 for Surya, the sun god, who in Hindu iconography rises in the east and races across the sky in a chariot drawn by seven horses. Konark's builders made that chariot in stone. Twenty-four great carved wheels line the north and south sides of the platform, twelve pairs for the twelve months, with seven horses straining at the front. Seen from inland at dawn, the whole temple seems to rise out of the sea carrying the sun. The wheels are said to be working sundials, accurate to the minute.

Legend says it took 1,200 artisans twelve years under the master builder Bisu Moharana, who left home for the work and had a son he had never seen; the son grew up to join the workshop, finished the crowning cupola his father could not, and then threw himself from the top. Between the wheels the plinth swarms with carved lions, musicians, dancers and erotic couples, and the medallions show Vishnu, Shiva, Parvati, Krishna and other gods, all in khondalite stone at the peak of Kalinga architecture.

The great tower over the sanctuary once rose more than 61 metres. How it was ruined is still argued, from natural decay to deliberate destruction during raids between the 15th and 17th centuries. European sailors as early as 1676 called it the Black Pagoda for its dark tiered bulk, a landmark on the coast, as the Jagannath Temple at Puri was the White Pagoda. The main tower finally fell in 1837. The audience hall in front of it, the jagamohana, about 39 metres high, survives as the heart of the ruins. In 1903, fearing it too would collapse, the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal had it sealed and filled with sand; in 1906 casuarina and tamanu trees were planted to break the sand-laden sea winds. In September 2022 the Archaeological Survey of India began taking the sand back out.

UNESCO listed the temple in 1984. It remains a major Hindu pilgrimage site, crowded every February for the Chandrabhaga Mela, and appears on the back of India's ten-rupee note. Fallen sculptures fill the Konark Archaeological Museum nearby, and other carved panels from the temple ended up in British collections, among them the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.