A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.105

c21.105

But undoubtedly the greatest achievement of the period was the temple of the Sun at Konarak, some twenty miles from Puri along the sea-coast in a north-easterly direction. Built by king Narasimhadeva (1238-63), the ruined mass of this temple, popularly known as the Black Pagoda, is a prominent landmark in the locality. It may be doubted if it was ever quite completed as it seems that the foundations began to give way before the heavy superstructure was finished. 'The conception of this temple,' says Brown, 'was that of a genius, but its colossal grandeur outstripped the means of execution. . . : It was however a magnificent failure, for without unduly straining the imagination, it is possible to see, even in its ruin, that it was one of the finest architectural efforts the Indian master-mason ever made.' The whole temple is fashioned like a wheeled chariot being drawn by the seven horses of the Sun. There are twelve giant wheels each nearly 10 feet high on either side of the immense plinth while the wide flight of steps in the front is flanked by seven richly caparisoned horses 'rearing and straining in their harness as they strive to drag its great bulk along'. The naṭmandir was a separate structure with a pyramidal roof on a high square plinth in front of the temple and reproducing all its main features on a smaller scale. Round it were a number of supplementary shrines and other accessories all enclosed within a courtyard 875 feet by 540 feet with pyramidal gateways on three of its sides. The immense surfaces of the walls of the temple and its accessories are decorated with many sculptured forms—some of outstanding beauty, but others of a crudely erotic character. Only the jagamohan, a square hall 100 feet long with a stepped pyramidal roof 100 feet high, remains in a tolerable state of preservation. Notable among the subsidiary structures is the ornate temple of Rāmachandra in the south-western portion of the enclosure. Many colossal groups of sculptures, some of them superb works of art intended to occupy salient positions in the structure, are lying loose on the ground (Pl. XV). Among them are two spirited war-horses and the statues of Sūrya and of Gaṅgā. The decorations on the walls of the main temple include every motif and subject known to the Indian mind, carved with minute precision. It has at its basis a frame of vertical and horizontal courses which combine to produce an astonishingly beautiful impression.