HISTORY OF KONARK SUN TEMPLE Related to tamil culture
Can any one give more information on this subject.
please send me a information regarding inscriptions of kalinga king at Tamilnadu. according to one information ,there is a inscriptions at alanath temple at kanchipuram by wife og kind Bhimadeva '3 s wife.
Internationally acclaimed sculptural monument, as it is, the Sun Temple located at Konark is known as 'black pagoda' also.
The Sun Temple was called Black Pagoda because it was so huge in size and 227 feet hight that it was helpful for the Sea farers of ships in the Bay of Bengal to locate their places and navigate them in the proper direction towards their destinations.
This collosal masterpiece was constructed by a Kalinga king by name Narasimha Deva I who ruled the Kalinga region during the thirteenth century A.D. (1238 - 1264) . According to the discription given by the historians, the temple has been constructed over a periods of sixteen years .
Legend has it that the seven horses hauling the chariot represent the seven colours (VIBGYOR) got by the dispersing sun's rays. There are people who claim that the seven horses harnessed to the chariot represent the seven days of a week. According to another tradition, the seven mantras enshrined in the Vedas, namely, gayathri, bruhatii, ushniik, jagadii, trustuup, anushtup and basti are represented by the seven horses in the chariot [Quoted from Bhagavad puranam by Sun Worship and its is believed that these seven mantras represent the seven days of a week.
The wheel in sun god's chariot represents the sun, the ruler of the entire cosmos. The three phases of a day viz. morning, noon and evening are represented in it. According to another tradition, the sun god is considered as the son of Athithi. Bharagavatam says that Adityas(Suns) are twelve in number.
It has to be remembered here that the Tamils offer Pongal to all the twelve suns by way of worshipping them during the pongal festival.
And it may be told that the twelve spokes in the wheel of the chariot of sun god represent these twelve Adityas . The sun chariot in the sun temple at Konark has 24 wheels and each of these wheels has eight spokes It is well known that sun temple is located at Konark. Sun temples, however, are located in different parts of Tamilnadu as well.
Apart from the above mentioned sun temples located in Tamilnadu there are sun temples in other places as well. There is one at Arasavalli, a twon located in Srikakulam district of Andhapradesh. In Pakistan also there is a very ancient sun temple at Mooltan which is believed to be constructed as far back as about two thousand years.
During ancient and mediaeval periods, the present day southern Orissa was known as 'Kalinga'. Historical cities like Bhuvaneshwar, Puri, Konark, etc. were located in this region.
Chola King Rajendran I who ruled Tamilnadu during 1019 - 1035 A.D., extended his kingdom upto the Ganges in the north after conquering Kalingam Since the King Ananda Varma Soda ganga (who is son of chola queen rajasundari) who ruled Kalinga during the 12th century AD refuesed to pay the tributes to the Chola King Kulothunga-I, Chola King's General Karunakara Thondaiman invaded Kalinga and conquered Ananda Varma, according to inscriptional evidences.
Kalingattupparani, a Tamil literary classic composed in honour of this victory gives an enchanting description about the war waged by the Chola king against the Kalinga King
Soma-Le, a famous writer in Tamil, claims that the sun temple build on the northern bank of the river Cauvery in Thiruvidaimarudur Taluk of Thanjavur district is constructed by King Kuluthunga Chola-I (1078-1118 AD).
constructed a sun temple in 11th century AD itself, well before the construction of the 13th century sun temple at Konark in Orissa. Further, it becomes quite clear that a sun temple had been constructed in Mooltan of the present day Pakistan, much earlier to both of these templs, about 2000 years ago.
The following point were discussed in this chapter:
Orissa was knows as Kalingam in ancient times.
Konark is located in the southern part of the present day Orissa. Chola kings who ruled Tamil land had ruled Kalinga region also for some time. Rajendracholans invasion during 1019 from that time onwards till 1475 continous relations and war with tamils kings from orissa. saint ramanuja visited puri twise in his period during and played vital role in puri temple ritual methods. Even Lord ganesh from kanchi installed at puri during surya dynasty.
Even before the construction of the 13th century sun temple at Konark, a sun temple had been constructed in Tamilnadu during the 12th century.
The eight spokes in the wheel of sun god's chariot represent the three phases of a day, namely, morning, noon and evening. The wheel of sun god's chariot represents the cycle of various changes taking place in human life and the role played by the sun in protecting this cosmos.
The sun temple and the wheel in the sun god's chariot represent the development of human personality in tune with the changes taking place due to change of time.
A sun temple had been constructed circa 2000 years ago during the Indus valley civilisation period at Moolan, located in the present day Pakistan. This bears ample evidence for the growth and development of Dravidian civilisation apart form bearing evidence to the strands of thinking of the ancient Dravidians.
Tamil friends of our group are invited to Orissa for enjoying the heritage of Indian's temple and vital tourism destinations of India.
Quite interesting note. And we are all proud of you for giving very valuable information.
A small correction in Ananta Varma Choda Gangan-Rajasundari related history.
1.Rajasundari is not the mother of Ananta Varma. She is said to have related to him but in what way - no body has clue. But surely she was not elder to him, historians find.
2. Rajasundari was famous in Vengi mandalam in Chola country. Vengi is present Vada Pennaru-Krishna-Godavari delta. Number of historians in Telugu country has written articles about her. Prof. P.Sundaram, N. Venkatramanayya all counted her as Kulottunga Daughter but she is not. Because the Kalingattu Parani was very very clear about the war between Chola and Ananta Varma's Kalingam and mentioned Ananta Varma as a clear enemy whereas the above historians did not count Kalingattu Parani as evidence and they did not know tamil too. Some professors mentioned Rajasundari as wife of Ananta Varma and some other equated her with Kulottunga-1. They even said that to support his relative Anantavarma, Kulottunga went to war against one Deva Raya of Kalinga and that was Kalingattu por. But they agreed that all were only speculations only.
A clear evidence has been collected at Dhraksharama Temple incriptions in Telugu-sanscrit mentioning Rajasundari as daughter of Chola tribhuvana chakravari Veera Rajendra choda thevar. She was also a native of Vengi mandalam. This must have been a true note about Rajasundari and when I took this particular subject to Prof. Sundaram of AU, he was very much surprised and he said he will re-write the history notes about her.
There are several inscriptions in the Temple about the destroy of Seven Kalingams by Rajendra Chola means here Kulottunga Chola as he was named after his Grand father which I mentioned in my Vamsadhara Book. Thiru K.Balasubramaniam (Who has just retired from Saraswati Mahal Library, Tanjore) gave a very clear picture about these incriptions in his book 'Karunakara Thondaiman'.
Thaks a lot for givinig us this information. Kindly let me Know about the Jeya Sthambas erected by the Emperor Rajendra Chola I on the Hills of Mahendragiri in the district of Srikakulam, AP bordering Orissa.