Information about of Konark Odisha

The measures, which have been adopted for the conservation of the temple, are so extensive that they have become a part of the history of the monument itself.

Konark Orissa

Curisouly enough, the first suggestion for the conservation of the temple came not from the antiquarian but from the Marine Board which requested, in 1806, the Vice-President in Council, not only to take measures against the removal of stones but also to ascertain the cost for the preservation of the edifice. The move for repairs arose out of a purely utilitarian motive, as the temple, called the Black Pagoda by European mariners, served as an essential landmark on the shallow coast of Orissa. But the Governor General did not agree to the proposal of conservation in view of the heavy expenditure involved, though he directed the Magistrate of Cuttack to prevent removal of stones.

Had the Government listened to the advice of the Marine Board, a portion of the tower could perhaps have been saved for posterity, for the sanctuary had stood nearly 3 m. higher than the porch till the strong gale of 1848 reduced it to a massive heap of stones. The second move, again futile, for repairs cropped up in 1838 when the Government was aroused to a sense of its responsibility towards this famous Government property, by the Asiatic Society of Bengal after the depredations of the Raja' of Khurda. The Deputy Governor of Bengal, however, declined to interfere with the temple, except in the case of spoliation and injury by individuals.

As the Government did not take steps for restoring the dismantled stones to their position, it was proposed, in 1859, by the Asiatic Society of Bengal to remove the dislodged nava-graha architrave to the Indian Museum in Calcutta. The initial attempt for the transport of the piece in 1867, however, failed, as the grant of Rs. 3000 was barely sufficient for laying a tram-road. The money was exhausted after the architrave had been carried to a short distance, just outside the south-eastern corner of the enclosure; the sea by which the stone was to be dispatched would have been about 3 km. away still.

Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal

Following his visit to Konarak, Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, suggested some repairs at a small outlay. Accordingly, in 1881, the Bengal Government instructed the Public Works Department to take measures to arrest further decay of the temple and to place the stone animals on rough pedestals. Be-sides jungle-clearance, the only work done in 1882-83 was that the colossal pairs of elephants, horses and lions-on-elephants, which had originally stood in front of the three staircases of the porch and were at that time lying fallen amidst debris, were mounted on masonry platforms in front of, but some meters away from, the respective staircases. Un-fortunately, they were set in wrong positions with their faces towards the temple instead of away from it. To make the matter still worse, the two lions-on-elephants had been erected on the top of a mound, which on clearance of sand later, revealed a large pillared hall, bhoga-mandapa. Thus, the hope raised by Sir Ashley Eden's interest in the monument remained unfulfilled. Even the little work done was not carried out properly.

In 1892, the question of repairs cropped up once more when the Lieutenant-Governor Sir Charles A. Elliot, following his visit to the temple, felt the necessity of its inspection by a competent person to suggest suit-able measures for its conservation. He was also inclined to grant a moderate sum for the upkeep of the buildings by jungle-clearance and for buttressing the hanging parts and also for collection and transportation of the fallen sculptures including the nava-graha architrave to the Indian Museum. Accordingly, a second attempt was made to bring the nava-graha architrave to Calcutta. To make it lighter for carriage, the stone was sliced longitudinally into two halves. Leaving the uncarved back portion at the spot, the carved front slice was loaded on a specially-made truck and carried some meters further towards Telikood Creek, where, it was intended, along with several small sculptured stones fallen from the temple, to be loaded on a barge for Calcutta. In 1893, the Bengal Government, considering the objection of the local people, ordered the Public Works Department not to touch it in future, so that the slab had been left there till the second decade of the present century when it was shifted to the sculpture-shed. Thirteen sculptured pieces, however, were brought to Calcutta in 1894 and are now in the Indian Museum. The Superintending Engineer inspected the temple, and estimates were prepared for partly filling up with dry stonework the interior of the porch and propping up its roof, then standing dangerously, and also for the clearance of stones from inside so as to give a firm base for the dry stonework. No structural repairs, however, were carried out, as the Government accepted the views of the Superintending Engineer who was against interfering with the porch and suggested that the jungle should be cleared up annually. Accordingly, the temple was brought on the books of the Public Works Department, the Superintending Engineer was instructed to carry out the necessary annual maintenance and the District Magistrate was asked to arrange for an occasional patrol of police to see that no injury was done to the temple.

The proposal of the Lieutenant-Governor for the clearance of the mound of debris behind the porch was also not implemented, as the Superintending Engineer thought it inadvisable to interfere with the mound of debris which was buttressing the back wall of the porch.

Thus, nearly a full century was wasted by vacillation as regards the propriety of saving the temple at an unreasonable cost and by downright neglect which threatened the very existence of the temple, though the Government was aroused to a sense of its responsibility towards it from time to time and occasionally a Lieutenant-Governor, in an access of enlightenment and moved by the compelling grandeur of the monument, was inclined to spare a small sum leading to few sporadic works amounting to little.

The visit of Sir John Woodburn, the Lieutenant-Governor, to Konarak, in December 1900, put an end to this stalemate and augured bright prospects for the temple. Fully impressed with the necessity and urgency of the structural repairs to the shattering fabric of the temple by supplying missing stones and restoring the fallen pieces to the original spots, he issued an order to the effect. Shortly afterwards, in February, 1901, T. Bloch, Archaeological Surveyor of the Bengal Circle, submitted a note to the Government of Bengal suggest-ing the unearthing of the buried portion of the temple and the compound-wall, the clearance of sand from the compound, the refaxing of the broken moldings on the walls of the porch and the preservation of the portions standing in a dangerous position. The Government of Bengal accepted the suggestions, and an estimate was prepared almost immediately for clearing the sand around the porch and the compound-wall and excavating rubbish and stones from the basement of the porch. As early as April 1901 was exposed a wheel by excavating a trench at the base of the porch.

The year 1901 was thus a memorable year in the life of the temple, as it witnessed for the first time the firm launching of a well-planned campaign to save the temple at any cost by adopting suitable measures with keen archaeological conscience. The problems which faced the conservators were enormous: the premises around the temple had to be cleared of not only a deep accumulation of sand but also stones, many of which. were of gigantic size; the tottering fabric of the porch on the point of collapse had to be given a fresh lease of life by structural repairs; and the extant portion of the sanctuary had to be exposed out of the huge pile of fallen stones and consolidated by suitable steps. To make matters worse, many of the stones were highly disinte-grated and crumbling into pieces. The conservators—the Executive Engineer, the Assistant Engineer and the Sub-Divisional Officer of the Orissa Circle—advised by the Archaeological Surveyor, Director General of Archaeology and Superintendent of Archaeological Survey of the Eastern Circle, laudably proved themselves equal to their task and within a span of ten years were able to rescue whatever of this stupendous fabric had survived.

The clearance of sand and stones on three sides of the porch gradually brought to light the superb platform along with horses and wheels and several structures including the bhoga-mandapa, the interior of which could not be cleared immediately due to the lions-on-elephants planted erroneously on its top in 1882-83. These operations thus revealed for the first time that the remains at Konarak comprised not merely a single temple but a whole complex of temples as noted by Abu'l-Fadl. Portions of the enclosure along with its east gate, too, were traced to a small depth. The com-pound-wall was found greatly robbed of its stones, and only at one spot were noticed a few battlements in situ.

Along with the work of clearance was taken up the extremely tough and risky job of conserving the badly-shattered porch. Stripped of facing stones at many places, a large part of the exterior was overhanging dangerously. Stones from the inner side of the roof, which was threatening to give way, were falling every now and then and endangering the very life of the workers. To prevent its collapse, it was decided to fill in the interior permanently. Thus, after repairing the damaged portion of the ceiling, a lining of dry masonry, 4 m. thick, was erected along its interior walls, the space left in the centre up to the top being filled in with sand. In the beginning, the sand-filling was affected through the northern door, the only door kept open for the purpose. Then this door, too, was sealed. Filling next continued through the hole caused in the roof by the fall of the sanctuary-tower and finally through a whole, 13 cm in diameter and 7.62 m in length, drilled vertically from the top. Externally, large-scale stonework was done to support the overhanging parts and to restore the missing stones. All traces of the southern door vanished with the cons-traction of a buttressing wall of ashlar masonry, as this portion had been badly damaged by the spoliation of the Raja of Khurda as well as by the fall of the spire of the sanctuary. The loose stones were re-set in their original position. The essential works for conserving the porch was completed in 1905. In 1906-07 the damaged cornice over the eastern door was secured by building corbelled abutments below and some patch masonry work done on the west face of the porch.

The two lions-on-elephants, installed on the top of the bhoga-mandapa, were gently brought down and planted not in their original position but in front of the eastern staircase of this very structure. The removal of sand and debris from the interior of this edifice revealed not only its true character but also a fine chlorite image of Surya leaning against one of its carved pillars. This image, which is now in the National Museum, New Delhi, tallies in size with the two pariva-devatas of Temple 2.

The clearance of the mammoth pile of debris to the west of the porch was taken up towards the end of 1905. This brought to light not only the existing portion of the sanctuary with three chlorite images of the padvadevatiis and the carved platform inside the sanctum sanctorum, but also a large number of chlorite sculptures, most of which were originally within the murufis of the back. The security of the images of the peirivadevatiis was censured by building niches around them. As the entrance to the sanctum was blocked with the filling of the porch, an access to it was provided by a flight of steps from the extant top of its west wall.

Along with these works was taken up, in 1906, a large-scale plantation of the casuarina and poonang trees in the direction of the sea, so as to check the advance of the drifting sand and thereby to minimize the effect of the abrasive action of the sand-laden winds.

The removal of sand and debris behind the sanctuary exposed, in 1909, the extant portion of a beautiful temple, Temple 2 (now called Mayadevi temple), completely except a portion of its plinth. The two images of the pariva-devatas, which were exposed in the operations, were encased in rebuilt niches. To the southwest of Temple 2 were encountered scanty traces of a small brick structure.

Maya Devi Mandir

Thus, by 1910 the initial task of conservation, incorporating all the items essential for rendering the monument stable, was completed at a cost of nearly a lakh of rupees.

Attention to the monuments continued even after-wards, and by 1922 all the major structural repairs like the rebuilding of the wall-tops of the sanctuary of Temples 1 and 2 and the bhoga-manlapa and making them watertight by laying concrete on the exposed tops, repairs to the walls of the sanctum of Temple 1, support-ing the iri of its porch, the restoration of missing stones and pointing the open joints were more or less complete. More casuarina trees were planted. Sand and fallen stones continued to be removed. Lightning-conductors were also fixed, while a sculpture-shed was constructed in 1915 to house the images and important carved pieces.

Since then small-scale repairs, like the clearance of vegetation, re-setting of loose stones, pointing and filling in the crevices were affected annually till 1953. Temples 1 and 2 also received chemical treatment by way of removal of moss and lichen, elimination of injurious salts by the application of paper-pulp and fungi-cidal treatment for some years beginning with 1938-39. Till 1938 the actual conservation works were the res-possibility of the provincial Public Works Department, the Archaeological Survey of India working only in an inspecting and advising capacity. Since 1939, the works have been carried out departmentally by the Survey.

The monument was inspected in 1949 by the executive Engineer of the Survey, who observed certain major damages. It was felt, even after the sustained work for half a century, which had, no doubt, rendered the temple stable to an appreciable extent, that large-scale repairs and chemical treatment were still needed. In 1950, the Government of India appointed a com-mittee of experts on archaeological conservation, engineering, art, architecture, geology and chemistry to go into the whole question of the preservation of the monuments and to find out appropriate measures for pro-longing their life. The principal recommendations of the Committee were:

(i)  Testing of humidity contents inside the sealed porch of Temple 1.

(ii)   Making of the entire Temple 1 watertight from outside by grouting,

     filling in of joints, rectification of wrong slopes and concreting the

     tops of the irregular masonry.

(iii)  Removal of sand from the compound with necessary pro-vision for drainage of water.

(iv)  Rebuilding of the damaged compound-wall to the height of the original coping

(v)   Chemical treatment of the surface.

(vi) Planting of a thick belt of casuarina and cashew-nut trees in the direction of the

     sea so as to produce a screening and shielding effect for the temple both from

     sand-drift and consequent attrition.

Konark Odisha Temple

The Committee met for the second time in 1953 and since then the recommendations have been persistently followed up by the Survey.

The complete clearance of sand from inside the enclosure has, apart from bringing the compound to its original ground-level, revealed a few features never be-fore suspected—a well pertaining to the kitchen block, the south gateway and a Vaishnava brick temple (Temple 3). The removal of sand necessitated the under-pinning of the platforms of the horses and elephants by ramps of coursed masonry. Sand was further removed from the ground in front of the east gateway, the original main entrance to the temple-complex, and the slopes stabilized by stone pitching. A strip of nearly 6 m. along the outer periphery of the compound-wall was cleared of stones and the level of the sand reduced to the level of the coping of the compound-wall.

The missing portions of the compound-wall were restored to the height of the bottom course of the coping, the damaged portions repaired and the open joints pointed.

The old lime terracing on the wall-tops of the sanctuary was replaced by a fresh 7cm thick lime concrete mixed with cement and ironite (as a water-proofing material), to the proportion of 1 lime, 2 sand, 4 stone chips, 1/8 cement and 15 lbs. (6.8039 kg) of ironite per cft. (.028317 cubic meter) of lime. Some other areas on the broken and uneven part of the walls were similarly concreted.

In order to stop the pooling and soakage of rain-water in the first and second terraces of the porch, all deep and wide joints and depressions were filled in with concreted mortar, the proportion of the mortar being identical with that of the terracing. All the joints were re-pointed. The rectification of wrong slopes for the easy flow of rain-water by chiselling the stones of these terraces was also effected with the result that the formation of puddles of water on these terraces is no longer possible.

Both the eastern and southern gateways were thoroughly conserved by restoring the missing stones, pointing the open joints and replacing the damaged plain and moulded courses by new ones made after the original. Appropriate steps were also taken to preserve Temple 3.

Exposed rusty iron clamps and dowels were replaced by copper ones. Several pockets in the platform of Temple 1 were filled in with masonry of khondalite to arrest the stagnation of water.

The plantation of trees is being vigorously pursued by the Forest Department. It has already minimized considerably the sand-drifts and the effect of the salt-laden sea-wind. The nava-graha architrave was removed to a new shed beyond the north-east corner of the enclosure. The practice of besmearing the slab with vermilion and oil has been stopped in the new building.

The removal of the stonework, constructed during earlier conservation, from the passage between the sanctu m and the porch has revealed the exquisitely-carved chlorite door-frame of the sanctum.

The filling in of all invisible interstices in the core of the masonry, including that of the plinth, has been completed. This has been done by drilling holes into the masonry and forcing into them under 40 lbs. (18'1437 kg.) of air pressure per square inch (6'4516 sq. cm.) liquid mortar in the portion of 1 cement, 2 sand and 10 lbs. (4.53592 kg) of ironite per cft. (.028317 cubic meter) of cement.

Extensive chemical cleaning and preservation of the facade from top to bottom of the porch has been taken in hand. Located in the courtyard of the temple, the sculpture-shed not only imparted a discordant note but was inadequate for the display of sculptures according to the requirements of a museum. A spacious museum building has, therefore, been constructed by the side of the road leading to the Inspection Bungalow.

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