Konark Sun Temple

Sun is the giver of life on earth. It is worshipped by many cultures. Konark Sun Temple is one of the many sun temples located around the world in Peru, Egypt, Japan and China. In India apart from Konark, we have sun temples in Modhera (Gujarat), Suryanarayana temple (AP), Surya Pahar temple (Assam), Martand sun temple (Kashmir) and many more in Bihar, MP and other states.

Brief History of Konark

According to Wikipedia, "It is a 13th-century CE (year 1250) Sun temple at Konark about 35 kms northeast of Puri city on the coastline in Odisha, India. The temple is attributed to king Narasimhadeva-I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya, what remains of the temple complex has the appearance of a 100-foot high chariot with immense wheels and horses, all carved from Khondalite stone. Once over 200 feet high, much of the temple is now in ruins. The structures and elements that have survived are famed for their intricate artwork, iconography, and themes, including erotic kama and mithuna scenes."

Chariot Wheels

The temple is shaped like a giant chariot having 24 wheels carved out of Khondalite stone. Each wheel is 12-feet in diameter with eight spokes. Elaborately carved, the wheel is an icon of Odisha. All the 24 wheels represent two sets of 12 each symbolising different months of the lunar calendar. Khondalite stone found in the Eastern Ghats weathers fast. But it was still used for the sculptures and carvings in the temple. The chariot was driven by a set of B. Remains of the horses can be seen in our pictures.

Ghumakkad visited the Sun temple at Konark recently. We reached the temple with fading sunlight which poses a challenge for photographing any monument. Nonetheless, sharing few pictures of the UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Contest

The following picture of the stone chariot wheel was selected for KBG-79, the 79th edition of Kaun Banega Ghumakkad online caption contest. The contest received more than 50 captions which are listed below. We thank all the participants for their creative captions.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-79 Contest
1	Zafar Naseem	Ultimate in craftsmanship for detail and symmetry
2	Yogesh	Keep moving.
3	VV Ramani	Sankethik adbhut
4	Vuppala B Umakanth	Kaal Chakra
5	Vinod Dhanuka	Life: Combination of Shine & Darkness
6	Vinod Chaddha	Samay ka chakra!
7	Vijay Uppal	Wheel of our heritage and destiny.
8	Veeky Baths	The poetry on stone!
9	Sunisha C	Dark and light in the circle of life
10	Shyamala Chatyulu	Wheel of Life with all angles
11	Sanjay Patnaik	Superb!
12	Rohini Tiwari	Timeless poetry in stone!
13	Ritu Bhargava	Value of time
14	Ritu Bhargava	Dharam chakra
15	Ritu Bhargava	Gati ki mahamaya
16	Rashmi Bhargava	The wheel of life takes one up or down by turn
17	Ramdas B Dhavare	The Whole Universe has 'Spherical shaped bodies' but it seems the 'Life on Earth is a Full Circle'.
18	Ramanand Baliga	Eternity
19	Rakesh Bajaj	Life is like a wheel sooner or later it comes back where it started.
20	Rajendra Singh	Wheel of karma, rolls on endlessly.
21	Radhika Sareen	समय चक्र
22	PRR Rao	The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.
23	Prem Raj Chadha	Beautiful!
24	Prashant Jadenavar	Neither I carry the weight of the Past Nor I Assume the Weight of the future! Just One step forward at a time!
25	Poonam Bhargava	The wheel turns evenly for all
26	Poonam Bhargava	An important invention by Man
27	Peter de Padua	Wheels within wheels
28	Nidhi Bhargava	जीवन चक्र में कभी धूप कभी छांव है जो रहे स्थितप्रज्ञ हर पल,वही सच्चा इंसान है
29	NC Sarangi	Cycle of Time
30	MV Vasudevan	Wheel, the First innovation of homosapiens, a technology marvel, then, is yet to be driven out by AI, innovated by mankind.
31	MN Muralidharan	(Life) Goes on!
32	Manju Khetan	Awesome!
33	Manik Rao	Cadence Cast in Stone.
34	LS Bhargava	A real life cycle of Ups & downs and happiness & sadness
35	Jyoti Dixit	The wheel of life turns gradually to show us pictures of our journey of life. Captain ship ahoy.
36	J Ramamoorty	Jeevan chakra
37	Gopu K	Happy days
38	GR Sreenivasan	The wheel of life takes one up and down  perpetually, ultimately we should learn to enjoy the journey.
39	Deepak Jena	The road to success is always under construction.
40	Deepak Jena	The time of wheels in life, that seems to be the worst, always turn out for the best!
41	CD Sawant	Life is like a roller coaster. You can either scream with fear or enjoy the ride. Choice is yours.
42	C Raghuram	Chakra(view) - the circle of life is permanent
43	BR Natarajan	We all are Abhimanyus in this Kal Chakra Vyuh.
44	Bharat Ladha	उजाले हो या अंधेरे। कभी न रुके कालचक्र के फेरे।
45	Avinash Tiwari	Kaal (Sudarshan) Chakra
46	Anonymous-3	Eternal
47	Jaishankar	सूर्य देवता जीवन दाता, चौबीस चक्रों वाले रथ पर आता भोर सवेरे आसमान में निकला बना दिया समा को उजला कालचक्र का निर्माता धरती मां के प्राण विधाता।
48	Anonymous-1	Sun God fame ...Konark Chariot Wheel cum Sun Dial
49	Amrit Yegnanarayan	Eternal
50	Amandeep Kaur	Not everything needs to go places to leave impact.
51	Amandeep Kaur	Non-movable yet attractive!
52	Ajai Bhumri	Wheel of life, beautifully carved by almighty. Man is to have an eye to see and enjoy.

The Winners

Our Jury has selected the following four winning captions for their creativity, brevity and/or instant appeal. Congratulations to all the winners.

Yogesh is a doctor who loves travelling and photography. A former Colonel in the Army Medical Corps, he volunteers as a medical officer at an Officer's Institute in Secunderabad. His short caption 'Keep moving' appealed to our Jury instantly. He has won the KBG contest earlier also.

Rashmi Bhargava has been a regular contributor to KBG contests. Winner of an earlier contest KBG-41, her caption 'The wheel of life takes one up or down by turn' conveys the reality of life. A post graduate from Rajasthan University, Rashmi has a creative mind.

Poonam Bhargava has been a teacher with compassion for fellow human beings and animals alike. An alumnus of Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, she loves Nature. She has won several KBG contests in the past. Her caption 'The wheel turns evenly for all' conveys Nature's equanimity.

CD Sawant has been a regular participant in KBG contests. His caption 'Life is like a roller coaster. You can either scream with fear or enjoy the ride. Choice is yours.' has a deeper message for all of us. Enjoy the ride and stay positive. A former General, Shekhar as he is known to his friends, loves to travel and interact with people.

Congratulations to all the winners of KBG-79.

The above visit to Konark was part of the Golden Jubilee of Navy Veterans of their Commissioning into the Indian Navy (1972-2022). Other stories of the Golden Jubilee Reunion and associated travel can be browsed by clicking the links below:

Konark Sun Temple - Stories in Stone

Chandrabhaga Beach- The Blue Flag Certified Beach

Sunset Years to Sunrise - Friends Make the Difference

Meet the Navy Veterans- Intro and pandemic positivity video

Veterans' Choice at Puri Odisha - where to stay

Trees by A Railway Line - Learning from the Trees

We end with a quote from the Nobel Laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore who wrote, "Here the language of stone surpasses the language of human."

More stories of our Reunion will follow. Thanks for browsing and stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Ashutosh Anand/ Secunderabad/ 9th Dec 2022

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