On 26 th February, 2019 visited the Konark Temple. The Konark temple is a 13th century Sun God temple built by Ganga Dev in 1250 on the shores of the sea. It has been ravaged by time, the sea and invaders and yet has a lot of the beauty intact in its sculptures. I went around admiring the various sculptures that depict women in various realms. It had scenes from day to day life besides erotica sculptures too. What is interesting is that some of these sculptures and the way they depict scenes are found even today. Notable among them a woman taking out water from her hair, woman getting herbal smoke for her body after child birth, a woman going about her daily life with a child, a mother in law talking to her daughter in law and she turning away her head. I am not sure about this but am told so by the Guide. Yet one can see the narrative and the tendency of observation and keenness of the artists. Photography is not allowed in many other temples but here and in Mukteswar one could freely use the camera. The twenty four wheels still point to the hour of the day through their shadows. There are thousands of women, instruments and dance poses and yet no two figures are same. Amazing work in stone and my salutation to those artists. Such an insight into Women's World in 13th century with the dress, hair styles, jewelry and going about their day to day work. It has been rightly said that if the Greeks excelled in the portrayal of physical charm of the human body, the Egyptians in the grandeur of the pyramids, the Chinese in the beauty of their landscape, then the Indians surpassed in their spiritual content and the day to day activities of life. Odhisa still has a lot of beautiful sculptures made of different kinds of stones sold around the place with delicate and intricate carvings.
