The Konark Sun Temple is a thirteenth century Hindu temple dedicated to the sun god Surya, built on the coast of Odisha, India, under the Eastern Ganga king Narasimhadeva I. The temple is designed as a colossal stone chariot for the sun god, its base carved with twelve pairs of ornately decorated wheels, each over three meters in diameter, and drawn by a team of seven sculpted horses. Its main sanctuary tower collapsed sometime after the temple fell out of active use, most likely in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, but the surviving audience hall and the temple's extensive stone relief carving, ranging from courtly and religious scenes to erotic sculpture in a tradition shared with Khajuraho, remain largely intact. The temple was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is often called the Black Pagoda, a nickname once used by European sailors navigating the coast.
Cross-Tradition Connections
In Style
The 13th-century Odisha sun temple, built as a colossal stone chariot, follows the Kalinga branch of the Nagara school of North Indian temple architecture.
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