16th November - Sun temple at Konark and Jagannath temple at Puri

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Two great attractions close to Bhubaneshwar the Sun Temple at Konark and the Jagannath temple at Puri are not to be missed, if one is a wildlife enthusiast then add Chilika Lake.

We made inquiries at the Hotel as to the best way to do these two attractions and were advised that we must do the Sun Temple first and then Puri. Fortunately we were given a contact person at Puri to make life easier for us.

The village of Pippili is on the way and we stopped over for a few minutes to take in the applique which is a specialty of this village. Colours are bright in Orissa to the extent at times of being gaudy, I do not know if this is traditionally so or is it the craftsmen are allowed to use these colours to their own detriment. They do need someone to talk to them and improve their colours. While their work is good the colours are.......................

Applique work - Pippili

The famous and renowned Sun temple is about 40 Kms from Pippili, the road to Konark goes through villages and one had better be careful and slow to avoid accidents, the two wheelers ad autorickshaws are clear that their lives are in your hands, they will drive recklessly sure that their lives are safe in your hands so you better be careful.

A banner of sorts tied on the wing mirror from a temple.

Vehicles are not allowed on the road leading to the Sun temple the car has to be parked about 300 Metres from the temple and the rest of the distance has to be covered by foot. Shops line the border selling eats, handicrafts, toys and the usual colourful items that one finds in small town bazaars.

There is no charge for taking your camera in but Rs 10 needs to be paid for every adult (Indian), there are official and authorised guides and also scamsters, make sure you hire a guide here, though the temple complex is small there are so many small sculptures and things to see that one may miss out numerous must see pieces and also the knowledge and history that the guides can provide.

Unfortunately, I think we got stuck with a scamster, the ID he showed did have his name and authenticated his status as a guide but I doubt if he was genuine. he gave some bullshit about a huge magnet on top of the now destroyed part of temple, ow once the magnet was removed the gopuram crumbled, what happened to the magnet? It was taken away by the Europeans, why was it removed? because, the magnet was so powerful it threw compasses on ships close to Konark off the mark, causing many shipwrecks. This guy was all the time pointing out and explaining acts of sex, lesbians, threesomes, different postures etc. yes these were there but I am sure there were other interesting things too

I would encourage you to read about the Sun temple on the internet and watch the video about the sundials on the wheels of Konark (youtube) to be able to grasp the wonder of this temple. That the wheels are actually sun and moon dials was discovered recently because of a sadhu who was found using the wheel to find out time and when questioned he is supposed to have explained how it works. It is believed that much about the temple is not known. A fascinating piece of architecture here and I do believe that one must make a trip here at least once in his lifetime. Take your time walkign around the complex, Imagine the times when the temple was at its glory.

Invading Mughals are supposed to have removed the copper cupola on top of the main building which exposed the sandstone to the weather and slowly the entire building crumbled. The Britishers filled the inside of the prayer hall so that the existing building will not collapse within.

Toll booths are manned by two men, one who takes the money and gives you the ticket and the other person inside the toll booth doing all the work.

Sun temple - Konark

Road leading to the temple

Vendor on the road

The entrance where a Lion sits on top of an elephant which is crushing a man

A women after deliverig her child standing above a fire to disinfect herself, I was told that this practice is prevalent even today

Shanker - Our guide

The Jagannath temple at Puri is alive and well. The month of Karthigai being auspicious in Orissa, there were more than 150000 people who visited the temple the same day as we did, fortunately our contact Hari Krishnan guided us through the 4 hours it took to get Dharshan at the temple. Every Hndu who walks into the temple is eligible for a 4 course meal, a sweet rice, a salty rice dish, two types of dhal and a sweet. Trust me - the quality of the food and the taste are not compromised and when we asked at out hotel where we could eat at Puri we were told to eat at the Jagannath temple. A visit to this temple is an amazing experience. Like at Konark no private vehicles are allowed close to the temple, We took a shuttle from the car park to the temple, with thousands of humans on the broad roads leading to the temple, with vendors, beggars, pilgrims, tourists, locals, priests making up the populace.

The temple complex is not very large but large enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who visit every day.

The English word Juggernaut owes its origin to this temple, in olden days pilgrims would sacrifice their lives on the massive wheels of the Rath or the Chariots of the gods, when the gods were taken out in procession in the streets of Puri. It was considered that this was because of the enormous power of Lord Jagannath giving rise to the word Juggernaut a corruption of the name Jagannath.

A mendicant at the entrance to the Puri Jagannath temple

Devotion and faith

Pandas or temple priests waiting at the entrance. Once a pilgrim is in their hands - with promises of easy entry and wonderful darshan they will milk him,

My first view of the Jagannath temple at Puri

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