SUN TEMPLES IN INDIA

SUN TEMPLES

                           Sun Temples in India 

Introduction: The Vedic scriptures of the Hindu religion refer to the sun as the store house of inexhaustible power and radiance. Ths sun god is referred to as Surya or Aditya. The Vedas are full of hymns describing the celestial body as the source and sustainer of all life on earth. The origin of the worship of the Sun in India is thus several centuries old.

References to sun worship are found in the puranas. The Ramayana speaks of Sage Agastya initiating Rama into sun worship through the Aditya Hridaya Mantra. The astronomer and astrologer Varahamirhira makes references to the intricacies of ceremonies connected with the installation of the icon of the Sun. It is also said that Iran was once a center of Solar worship and that some of the Magha priests of Iran had been brought to India to officiate in ceremonies. [Click->SUN TEMPLE IN INDIA

Konark Temple

Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the remarkable Temple of Konark (also spelled Konarak) is located on the Bay of Bengal on the eastern coast of India, about 240 miles south of Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). The nearest major city is Bhubaneswar, capital of the state of Orissa and home to hundreds of sacred Hindu temples. Other nearby attractions include the Jagannath (a form of Vishnu) Temple in Puri, one of the four most sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites, which include the holy city of Varanasi on the sacred Ganges River. Puri is also known as a popular beach resort.

The Temple at Konark is of a most unusual design, in the form of a huge chariot for the sun god Surya. The massive chariot has twelve pairs of wheels carved from stone, each with a team of seven galloping horses (only one of these seven pairs survives today). It is known as the Konark Sun Temple because of this relationship to the sun god. The temple is famous for its exquisite and intricate stone carvings covering every inch of the entire massive structure and which rival those found on the Khajuraho Temples. Like the temples at Khajuraho, there are also well-known erotic sculptures. And, like Khajuraho, the erotica can be found on lower tiers of the Konark Temple and are not associated with the carvings of gods and goddesses, which appear higher up.

As in the mythology of Greece, the sun and the chariot of the sun god, represent the passage of time. The Konark Sun Temple and its teams of horses face east, so that the chariot can be pulled towards the rising sun. Each wheel has twelve spokes, representing the twelve months of the year; the seven horses or each team represent the days of the week; eight spokes in each wheel represent the stations of a woman's ideal day.

The Temple of Konark was built about 1250 AD to celebrate defeat of the Muslim invaders. It is said that powerful magnets placed in the tower empowered the king's throne to float in the air. European sailors often used the tower to navigate the shores along the coast of the Bay of Bengal, but they dubbed the temple the "Black Pagoda" because of the large number of shipwrecks in this area. They said the effect of the magnets caused tidal changes that brought about the wrecks.

Muslim invaders returned in the fifteenth century and the Konark Temple was badly damaged. For centuries, the forces of nature caused even further damage, and it lay under a huge mound of sand until archeologists from England uncovered and began restoring it in the early twentieth century. Fortunately, like the great Pyramids and Sphinx near Cairo Egypt, the sand acted as protection from the elements, and the incredibly intricate and rich carvings on the lower parts of the temple were quite well preserved.

Once you pass through the Konark Sun Temple entrance guarded by two huge lions, each crushing a war elephant, you find yourself in the Hall of Offerings, site of sacred temple dancing. Past the porch is a shrine containing one of the Konark Temple masterpieces, a beautiful statue of Surya carved from a high quality green chlorite stone.

There is inexpensive transportation to Temple of Konark from both Puri and Bhubaneswar, and you can even book guided tours from these two cities. But the most efficient way to visit is to purchase a package vacation that has the site on its itinerary.

Surya Mandir (Sun Temple) Arasavali

 

This famous Sun God (Surya Devata) Temple in the world is situated in Arasavalli Village which is at a distance of about 1 KM east of Srikakulam Town in Andhra Pradesh, India. Srikakulam is the capital and head quarters of Srikakulam District and is the largest town in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh in India. It is one of the ancient two Sun God (Surya Devata) temples in our Country. According to Padmapuranam , Sage Kasyapa installed the Idol of Surya at Arasavalli for the Welfare of mankind . Therefore , the Surya is of Kasyapasa Gotra . He is also termed as planetary King . The ‘ Sthalapuranam ‘ of the temple narrates that lord Devendra had founded this temple and installed the existing idol of the sun God commonly known as Lord suryanarayana Swamy Varu under the following circumstances .

[Click more - Surya Mandir (Sun Temple) Arasavali - AP ]

Ranakpur-Rajathan

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RANAKPUR-RAJASTHAN - SUN MANDIR

The Sun Temple in Modhera

The Sun Temple in Modhera, Gujarat was built in the early 11th century by King Bhimdev, in dedication to the Hindu Sun-God, Surya. The temple’s magnificent exterior is intricately carved, and designed in such a way that the sun’s rays illuminate the temple’s sanctum at dawn during the equinoxes. Besides the sanctum, the temple has a pradakshina patha and a sabha mandap, as well as a Surya Kund, a massive tank with stunning miniature shrines that adorn its steps. Yahoo! reader DHARTI PATEL, a student of sculpture and art of Gujarat, shares her experience as she visits the temple of Surya.

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The Greek Sun-god Helios/Apollo

Moving westwards, it is also worthwhile to note that in most Indo-European religions, the gods worshiped were more or less the same. Thus, the Greeks called their Sun-god Helios while others named him Apollo.

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Seventh-Horse-of-Sun

                                                                              

                                    Journey to the Edge of the Universe

The Expanding Universe: 

From the Big Bang to Today

The universe was born with the Big Bang as anunimaginably hot, dense point. When the universe was just 10^-34 of a second or so old — that is, a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second in age — it experienced an incredible burst of expansion known as inflation, in whichspace itself expanded faster than the speed of light. During this period, the universe doubled in size at least 90 times, going from subatomic-sized to golf-ball-sized almost instantaneously.

After inflation, the growth of the universe continued, but at a slower rate. As space expanded, the universe cooled and matter formed. One second after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons, photons and neutrinos. -[Click -> Expanding-Universe-from-the-Big-Bang-to-Today.html

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