Architecture of India  
Hindu Temple Architecture
in the North – 2
– The Glorious Culmination

The Sun Temple, Konark 

This temple, had it been successfully completed, would have been the biggest temple in India by far. Yet it seems that the conception of the structure exceeded the available structural skill. For even before completion, the foundation of the temple started sinking under the great weight above, and the 200 feet high shikhara could never be finished. 

What remains of the temple now is the mandapa, which alone is colossal. The British walled up the interior of the mandapa with rubble to prevent its roof from collapsing. 

From the outside, the sun temple is on a large platform, which has on its sides carved wheels. The whole temple was conceived as the vehicle of the Sun. 

The temple at Konark too is ultimately a triumph of sculpture, its great size no deterrent to the skilled stonecutters. Although it takes second place behind Khajuraho, the sculpture at Konark is no less sensuous nor less haunting. 

The Sun Temple, Modhera 

In the middle of the desert in Gujarat lie the haunting remains of what must have been one of the greatest temples of mediaeval India, the Sun temple at Modhera. 

The most visible and famous ruin at Modhera is that of a ritualistic bathing tank in front of the Sun Temple. This tank, with its pattern of steps, has been the inspiration for many an architectural effort even today. From this tank, a broad flight of steps goes up to the temple itself, through an ornate torana, or gateway. 

The torana leads on to the mandapa that forms the heart of the temple. The shafts of the columns of this hall are exquisitely and sensuously carved, almost embroidered. 

This temple is little more than a ruin now. Yet the poignant remains are ample testimony to the magnificence that must have been the great Sun Temple of Modhera. 

An Age Ends 

And so ended the Mediaeval Period of temple construction in North India. By this time, raiding parties from across Afghanistan and Persia were beginning to seriously degrade the political stability of the region, with the result that no sustained architectural effort was ever possible again by the Hindu kingdoms of the North.  

–  Ashish Nangia
April 13, 2001

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