Every time I entered Korank Sun temple , which normally I keep in extended schedule instead of main in detour Konark city , dance Festival or Sand Festival , the three things amuses rather than attracts me of which one is certainly the depiction of erotica in its very primitive style which just got its last flash of desire , lust and perversion in the ruins of temple mostly in some hardcore posture than any artistic voyeurism. The second thing is of course the people’s enthusiasm to see all those sexual overture normally banned by family and these days blocked also by moral police of Govt. The otherwise strict daddy with his under grown son , the usually conservative mother spending most of her life inside the four walls with her school going daughter the nudes and their shringers or sexual postures are just the feast of the eyes for everyone of the family to visualize together. No embargo , no sanction , no censorship. But on top of everything what enthralls me most is the way the guide exploits this stories of erotica mingled with the history of Konark temple and its creator, how it reigned and then got ruined. In a bit crooked English spoken on rudimentary oriya accent , the history when got distorted and deformed and sometimes completely deviated from the context with their own cooked up version sounds so funny specially at the time the forced correlation of their own imagination in best percentage get blended with some truth with least percentage. Most of the time they keep streaming some broken stories of erotica in their over simplified version while standing in front of painting to keep their audience hooked. Very little coherence or consistence just exposed how less bothered they are about the treasure trove of legacies behind such sculptures came seven hundred years ago. Instead of being the stories are their only assets for their livelihood , they never explored it further to get the truth, understand the contexts or realize the real stories behind it. Had they been passionate more which eventually surely would have added to their professionalism also , they could have learnt the stories behind those different postures , shringers or erotica so close to incest like perversion which got exposed in their grand depiction. Alas they never have done it, not yesterday , not today and surely even not even tomorrow(as long as the visitors to take very fast glimpse of depiction keeping this place as detour to Puri or other place not the destination). Apart from inherited stories from nowhere they just keep improvising with their crude imagination sans any aesthetic or articulation . The stories behind the sculptures just gets buried more and more in darkness as the sun temple once got sunk inside the ruin. They are simply incapable , incompetent as well as indifferent to it mostly becz of their less literacy and least scholastic aptitude to realize how history carries the most precious knowledge to dissect it , to divulge it and then to decipher the truth . Their incompetency is palatable as they are with least resources to invest into the legacy of the epitome of time reflected as sun rays over the angular positioning(konark the meaning kone-ark angular- sun rays) of the stone made wheels strategically built. But the fact which was simply unacceptable the very selective avoidance of the same by the corporate like IOC which has taken so much drives to preserve the legacy , allegories and anecdotes of making of this huge temple in the name of Arka Khetra. The very recently established a hugely sprawling campus cum cafeteria with apparently very high investment just stoked the inquisitiveness much more than the fulfillment of an insightful explanation of the legacy of the Sun temple and its long journey of myth and truth.
The brand is simply visible with its deep pocket splurging hugely while securing all those pieces of histories scattered across the preserve of GSI, page book of ASI , mythology or the local inheritance. The brand undoubtedly has done a splendid job while bridging up the gap between the visitors’ defined curiosity and local (guides’)distorted explanation. What it has done was splendid job which was long overdue (otherwise the history not being preserved could have lost inside the piling up of contorted stories), but what it could have done might have been much more exemplary and torch bearing in such restoring of our heritages by big corporates specially the names which are themselves bearing with some thrilling history of genesis. IOL is certainly one of them with almost one lakh crore annual turn over with huge bottom line. They created an excellent state of the art restoration gallery , by recreating the history of Konark temple inside . They brought to light the otherwise chested treasure of design of thinking by then sculpture, architect, artisans who built up the huge wonder of temple meticulous guided by Science ,strategically glittered by Sun God historically glued to a so many anecdotes and allegories. But what could have been a far more scholastic exploration showcased in a very simple and common man’s exhibition encompassing the whole microcosm of the temple stories, just ended up in a few excellent recreation of sculptures and morals in its very much restricted edition with consciously avoiding the complete range of erotica ,the prime pattern of art with hidden story lines on the temple wall. So once again we could not connect with these arts in its full depth and breadth as we have been deprived of its contextually once again. An beautiful auditorium also had been made occasionally screening an animation to depict the story of building up of Konark Temple which again was directed with very cavalier approach to depict some stories rather than history. Some further elaboration , more illustration and more detailing by capturing the time could have been presented with better script , proper score and music if been made under some top director or contracted to well established production house specially where money had never been constraint neither the best intention to create the history of Arka Khetra the zone of sun rays illuminated by Sun God may be the only God in Hindu mythology who has been visible to us in its complete physical form right from creation of the earth.
The huge temple with its history , artifacts and artisans , its creation and the perspective of such creation which certainly can speak the era and the evolution of a certain art and aesthetic with the psyche of its artists , who sculpted them and the dynasty who supervised them , their social and political contention or compulsion still kept merged for us in either complete illusion and some contorted illustration of the local guides.