Iron in Ancient India c6.s5.t2.3

c6.s5.t2.3

At Konarak the beams are even larger in dimensions. Stirling, who visited the shrine in 1824, saw nine iron beams nearly one foot square and 18 to 21 feet long.¹ Fergusson, who visited Konarak in 1838, makes the section less, viz. 8 inches by 9 inches, but the lengths greater to 23 feet. Dr. Rajendra Lall Mitra makes the length of the beams 21 feet with average cross section 8 inches by 10 inches. The Konarak temple was more or less in complete ruins until regular work of preservation, commenced under the Government of Sir John Woodburn, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (Orissa was then a part of Bengal). Only a heap of debris and the dilapidated porch in the front remained while the Nātmandir and other temples were buried under drift sea-sand probably two or three centuries previously. In 1901 the excavation of sand round the main temple was commenced and beautiful carvings and other objects of architectural value, including iron beams, were discovered. Whilst Stirling saw in 1824 only nine beams, Mr. H. B. Graves has counted in 1912 as many as twenty-nine beams at Konarak, the largest being 35 feet long and 7 to 7½ inches square, weighing about 6000 lbs. There is another beam 23½ feet in length and 11 by 10½ inches in section which was a part of a much longer beam, the other end missing. "Some of the pieces are only 5 or 6 feet in length and, could they be matched, it would probably result in not fewer then twenty complete beams."