ÒHere the language of stone surpasses the language of humanÓ -Rabindranath Tagore Konark Sun temple or Konark Surya Mandir is located in the village of Konark, some 35 Kms from Puri, in Orissa, India. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Dedicated to Sun God, Surya, what remains of the temple complex (that was constructed in the 13th century), has the appearance of a 100 ft high chariot with immense wheels and horses all carved from stone. Once over 200 ft high, much of the temple is now in ruins, but majestic and awe-inspiring, all the same. The current temple is attributed to Narasimha Deva 1 of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty (1238 Ð 1264 CE). It is one of the few Hindu temples whose planning and construction records written in Sanskrit in Odia script have been preserved in the form of palm leaf manuscripts that were discovered in a village in the 1960s and subsequently translated. The architecture of Konark Sun temple is magnificent, both inside the temple and outside, with intricately carved sculptures. Its architecture has all the defining elements of the Kalinga architecture Ð it includes Shikhara (crown), Jagmohana (audience hall), Natya Mandir (dance temple) and Vimana (tower). It is oriented towards the east so that the first rays of the sunrise strike the main entrance. The wheels of the temple are sundials; sunÕs shadow on the spokes of the wheels is used to measure the accurate (to a minute) time of the day, even today. The Konark Sun temple is built in the form of a mammoth chariot that Surya rode. It is said the Surya rode across the sky on his chariot pulled by seven horses. The platform of Konark is engraved with twelve pairs of wheels of the chariot. The architecture is also symbolic, seven horses representing seven days of the week and twelve pairs of wheels corresponding to the twelve months of the Hindu calendar. Twelve pairs of wheels or the number twenty four also represents twenty four hours of the day. (Source: Drawn from Wikipedia) Product Code-ART_8989_74064
