PilgrimTrips - India Pilgrimage

History

The magnificent ruins on the sandy sea- shore at Konarak, at a distance of about twenty miles from puri, represent the celebrated Bluck pagoda of Orissa, which used to receive the first rays of the sun, rising over the boundless expanse of the Bay of Bengal, to warn the mariners of the danger which the surf still offers to navigation along the coast. The edifice, according to te Madala Panjt (a palm- leaf manuscript record of events regularly kept in the temple of Jagnnatha) is said to have been built by Langulia Narasinha Deva, whose long reign of forty- five years terminated in 1282 A.D.

But Fergusson assigned its construction to the ninth century, as he refused to believe that "this sumptuous and magnificent work of art could be subsequent in date to the inferior architecture of the temple of Jagannatha." The style of workmanship would certainly go a great way to support this inference, although it would just as well suggest the strong probability, by no means unusual in India, that the materials utilised by Narasinha were really gathered from an older monument.

"The temple itself," observed Fergusson, "is of the same form as all the Orissan temples, and nearly of the same dimensions as the great ones of bobaneswar and puri; it surpasses, however, both these in lavish richness of detail, so much so, indeed, that perhaps I do not exaggerate when I say, that it is, for its size, the most richly ornamented building, - externally at least- in the whole world." It was dedicated to Surya or the Sub. When it came to be demolished in the beginning of the seventeenth century by an unforeseen calamity, the images were removed to puri, (according to the palm- leaf record) by king Narasinha, the son of King purusottama and grandson of King Ramachandra Deva. Arunastambha or the Sun- pillar, which stood in front of the pagoda, as well as the Bhogamandira or the hall of offerings, were subsequently removed and added to the temple of Jagannatha by the Marhattas, during their occupation of the country in the eighteenth century. Many interesting relics of Indian Sculpture had since been carried off by enterprising explorers until prevented by Government when the great work of "restoration" came to be taken up in right earnest.

A temple in Orissa consists of (1) the deul or the holy of holies, (2) the Jagamohana or the porch, (3) the Natamandira or the dancing- hall and (4) the Bhogamandira or the hall of offerings. Of these four parts, the Natamandira does not appear to have ever been attached to the Black Pagoda. But all that now remains is the solitary Porch!

Lieutenant- Colonel Colin Mackenzie, a Surveyor- General of India, was the first scholar in the field, who caused a large number of drawings to be taken in 1815 of the existing specimens of sculpture. He lies buried in the South Park Street Cemetery at Calcutta, unnoticed and unsung. But his great treasure, "the Mackenzie Collection," with the excellent report of Professor Wilson, is well- known to all students of Indian Archelogy. Stirling visited the place soon after in 1824, when a small portion of the deul was also visible and was 120 feet high. In 1839 Fergusson took a drawing of that tottering relic, which, however, had completely disappeared by the time when Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra came to inspect the Pagoda in 1868. As the entire structure was in a flourishing condition when the Ain-I-Akbari was being compiled under the great Mogul Emperor Akbar, a description may be borrowed from that book.

"Near to Jaganaut," says the Moslem Chronieler, "is the temple of the Sun, in the erecting of which was expended the whole revenue of Orissa for twelve years. No one can behold this immense edifice without being struck with amazement. There are three entrances to it. At the eastern gate are two very fine figures of elephants each with a man upon his trunk. To the west are two surprising figures of horsemen, completely armed, and over the northern gate are carved two tigers, who, having killed two elephants, are sitting upon them. In the front of the gate is a pillar of black stone of an octagonal form, fifty cubits high. There are nine flights of steps, after ascending which, you come into an extensive enclosure, when you discover a large dome, constructed of stone, upon which are carved the Sun and the Stars, and round them is a border, where are represented a variety of human figures, expressing the different passions of the mind, some kneeling, other prostrated with their faces upon the earth, together with mins trels, and a number of strange and wonderful animals, such as never existed but in imagination. This is said to be the work of seven hundred and thirty years’ antiquity. Raja Narsing Deo finished this building, thereby erecting for himself a lasting monument of fame. There are twenty eight other temples, belonging to this Pagoda, six before the northern gate and twenty- two without the enclosure and they are all reported to have performed miracles." This description, though not a strictly accurate one in every particukar, invites a careful investigation of the ruins. The place must have already been one of great sanctity before Narasinha though of building there a temple for the Sun- god. For, it is Prima facie incredible that so much should have been expended for a temple on the risky foundation of the sandy sea shore, if the place had not demanded it on account of its pre- existing reputation for great sanctity.

It is now generally described by the priests as one of the four Kshetras or holy places of Orissa, where Vishnu left his weapons in his conflict with the great demon Gaya. According to this legend, Puri is the Sankha Kshetra where the conchshell was left; Jaipur is the Gada Kshetra, where the club was left; Bhuvaneswara is the Chakra Kshetra, where the lotus was left. But Konarak had yet another name, which is scarcely remembered now. It was called the Maitra vana, which Dr. Rajendralala was led to translate into "the friendly forest." It is hardly necessary to point out that Matra- vana really means "the forest sacred to Mitra" and that Mitra is one of the well known names of the Sun.

We have a legend about it in the Samba Purana. According to it, Samba (the son of Krishna by one of his numerous wives named Jambavati) was stricken with leprosy, as he had unwittingly incurred the displeasure (curse) of his irate father, for having been found loitering listlessly about the bathing place of his father’s wives. He was advised to repair to the Maitravana on the river Chandrabhaga (which is still pointed our at Konarak) to get rid of his sufferings by austere penance in the worship of the Sun. The Sun had been worshipped in India from the earliest antiquity not only as the great source of light but also as the great healer of incurable diseases, Numerous temples, dedicated to the Sun, existed all over India, and the Maitravana appears from this Pauranic account to have acquitted a special celebrity. Pilgrims still resort to it once a year in the month of Magh.

The worship of a sacred tree came also to be associated with this place, and we have a reference to it in the Kapila samhita. Konarak appears, therefore, to have given shelter to Buddhism, when that faith prevailed in all parts of Orissa. The Black Pagoda might thus have been built with older materials during the restoration of Sunworship after it had been temporarily superseded by Buddhism. The twenty- eight temples, said to have performed miracles, are no longer in existence. It would be interesting to know what faith used to be represented by them.

The Black Pagoda was originally surrounded (like the great temples at Puri and Bhuvaneswar) by a walled enclosure measuring 750+500 feet. Measurements of the temple were taken under the orders of the King in 1627, and we have a record of the same in the palm- leaf manuscript.

The Jagamohana or the porch, which is still visible in a fair state of preservation, owing to the recent work of " restoration," will amply repay the trouble of visiting the place. If stands on a foundation 66 feet square, with a total height of 100 feet. It consists of vertical walls (at places 20 feet thick) which, at a height of 60 feet terminate in a pyramidal roof, with a slope of 72 feet. The friezes in the projecting cornice, arranged in three tiers, in the sloping roof alone, present about 3000 feet of caving, with an astonishing variety of sculpture, pourtraying almost every aspect of Indian life pastoral, domestic, civil and military. If these sculptures ever come to be properly investigated, they will furnish the student with many an interesting specimen of Indian aspirations in the development of the fine arts.

"The workmanship," every Stirling, "remains, too, as perfect as if it had just come from under the chisel of the sculptor, owing to the extreme hardness and durability of the stone." This is by no means an exaggeration. The stone (Black Basalt) is not, however, available in Orissa. It was found in abundance in the Gaudian temples of ole, and was utilised by the Moslem iconoclasts in building their mosques. Of all the existing relics of ancient sculpture in India, those in black basalt are the finest products of the chisel. It was no wonder, therefore, that the Black Pagoda, built chiefly with this material, could command the admiration of the Moslem historian.

"It concentrates in itself", says Hunter, "the accumulated beauties of the four architectural centuries among the Hindus. Notwithstanding the indecent sculptures, which disgrace its exterior walls, it forms the climax of Bengal art."

"The sculptures in high relief bear witness to an age when Hindu artists worked form nature. The nymphs are beautifully shaped women, in luscious attitudes; the elephants move along at the true elephant trot, and kneel down in stone as they did in life."

The immense size of the blocks of stone and the huge beams of iron (remarkably free from rust) will be observed with wonder for a long time to come. As regards the latter, a modern writer frankly admits that "until very recent times, it would have taxed the powers of European founders to forge such massive beams of iron." Yet they are there, Iying on the sandy beach, who can tell us, with absolute certainty, from what hoary epoch of Indian antiquity?

The difficulties which must have attended the construction of the temple with such massive material may be better imagined than described. We have, however, one curious illustration in the fact that the Bengal Government got down a lintel at a cost of 3000 rupees with a view to remove it to Calcutta and was obliged to leave it alone where it still lies, at a distance of about 300 yards from the temple, as far from Calcutta as ever! It is a block of stone 19 feet long 3 feet high and 3 feet thick, with nine carved niches containing the images of Navagraha or the nine planets of Hindu mythology.

The Indian "always had the keenest eye for the beauties of hill and plain, mountain, forest, river and sea". This is undoubtedly visible at Konarak, where the effect of the Pagoda was due largely to the contrast between the boundless expanse of the sea and the exuberant vitality of the sculpture. The site itself points out the genius that never failed to select the exact spot to the construction in hand. It was here alone, along the entire eastern coast, where a true lover of nature would get the finest view of the rising Sun; and the selection of this spot for a temple of the Sun- god was, therefore, the happiest that could be conceived.

The Black Pagoda is a great study, greater indeed than what can be gathered about India from books of old. An Indian may be pardoned if he exclaims as he stands before these ruins- "What men or gods" were those who conceived and executed such wonderful monuments of national prowess !