Hey guys, in this video, we are gonna look at why the Konark Sun Temple was really built
and by the end of this video, you can decide if it is a Hindu temple at all.
Imagine that you are child who is only 5 years old and your parents have taken you to the
Konark Sun Temple.
This is what you would see in this temple.
At the lowest level of the temple, you will see what children are naturally interested
in: Animals.
There are exquisite carvings of various animals and their behaviors.
For example, you see how baby elephants hang around their mothers.
How monkeys behave.
Some are even funny, like today's cartoon network.
Here you can see how human beings use tamed elephants to capture a wild elephant.
This is a cage, and you can see how the sculptor had brilliantly carved the elephant inside
the cage.
This was ancient India's animal planet.
But this temple doesn't stop there, I am gonna show you how Konark temple was built as an
encyclopedia, as a University which teaches various subjects for all age groups.
I have realized that you can divide this temple into many different subjects according to
its height.
The first 2 feet are carved for small children below 5 years, and when you reach the ages
between 6 to 10, you are going to see things like dancing, singing and playing musical
instruments.
The temple holds an enormous amount of carvings about music and dancing.
This is odyssey, the traditional dance of the region.
There are 128 postures of traditional Indian dance, carved in this temple.
If you are tough kid, you can also see martial arts like boxing and wrestling.
Of course, life would be no fun without games.
So you can learn games like the tug of war as well.
The third level, fit for ages between 11 and 15 has enormous scientific information, specifically
astronomy.
This wheel is a sundial that can tell the accurate time, precisely down to a minute!
The temple, dedicated to the Sun God Surya is a giant symbolic representation of how
the Sun works.
The temple is shaped as a chariot with 24 wheels representing 24 hours of the day, featuring
3 sun gods : the morning sun with a happy face, the somber noon sun and the evening
sun with a sad face.
But all experts and commoners have missed something very important.
What are these weird animals carved on either side of the chariot?
They are horses in an extremely disintegrated state, they were disfigured by foreign invaders.
There are a total of 7 horses which pull the chariot of the sun.
Now, Why is the chariot being pulled by 7 horses?
Some say, just like the 24 wheels represent 24 hours of the day, the 7 horses represent
7 days of the week.
But this is not true.
Astronomers agree that the 7 days of the week are not connected to the Sun at all, and some
civilizations even had 8 day weeks, because it is not relevant to the movement of the
sun and the earth.
So, why is the chariot of the Sun god being pulled by 7 horses?
If you talk to the elderly people in this area, they reveal some intriguing information.
They say that each of the 7 horses was painted with a different color of the rainbow.
So, this horse was probably painted with violet, this one with indigo, and so on.
Now, we know that Issac Newton discovered that sun light is not white, but made of 7
different colors.
This was a startling discovery back then, and even now it is hard to accept that sunlight
is actually made of 7 different colors.
Newton discovered this in 1600s, but this temple was built nearly 400 years before Newton,
so how did the ancient builders know that the Sun light was actually made of different
colors?
More importantly, why aren't historians recording this in their books?
Anyway, now you know why the Sun God's chariot is being pulled by 7 different horses.
In the next level, which belongs to age groups from 16 - 20, You can also learn a lot about
politics, war and administration.
Here we see the military of ancient kingdom and you can even see the flag.
We can see how kings were dealing with commoners in a court.
You can also see how executions were done, here a man is being crushed by an elephant.
Here you can see people carrying a Palanquin, safely transporting the queen.
You can learn about international connections.
In this sculpture, you can see a group of Africans with a Giraffe, meeting the Indian
King.
This carving is still baffling historians, because they claim that Africa never had a
flourishing civilization.
You can see Greeks and Chinese as well in this temple.
Of course you can learn other softer occupations like Fashion technology - I have shown already
shown you high heels, skirts, hairdos, in a different video.
Here, I must point out that Hinduism is a very superstitious religion.
All over India, couples who are not able to have children visit their local priests, and
the priests advise them to visit Konark Temple and spend 21 days here.
The ritual requires that the couples walk around the temple in the morning and the evening,
every day.
Of course, the real reason becomes obvious once you look at the carvings at the next
level.
Konark temple probably has more erotic sculptures than any other temple in India.
There is no way, you are not going to be influenced by these sculptures which number in the thousands.
We think the system of sex education was created in western countries, but historians and archeologists
are not telling us that India had a very systematic approach in educating people about sex.
And this is not just limited to postures by the way: what does this carving show?
A woman is standing on a flame, right after childbirth to prevent infections.
Believe it or not, the tribe called Bonda who live in the region, still follow this
routine.
The women burn neem wood and stand on it, right after childbirth.
These moms actually start working right after the delivery, like it is nothing.
The last layer which belongs to the age group 25 and above has sculptures of various Gods,
which was serious business.
It is for very mature people who are ready to delve into the subject of the gods.
You would only look up, if you were not distracted by the erotic sculptures.
There are also sublevels of how to look at these gods, but that's another video.
Now, what we see today is just the outside of the temple.
The main structure has been completely destroyed and what we see here is not the main structure,
but a smaller structure built in front of the main structure.
Even this one has been completely sealed off, so we can't see what's inside.
If this the amount of knowledge we can gain from outside the temple, Imagine what could
have been inside the temple?
It is a shame that we have let this destruction happen because we would have had access to
some of the biggest secrets of ancient India.
If you visit a modern Hindu temple built today, these places are all about faith and business.
Every God is placed strategically for the visitor's convenience and nearby every idol
is a donation box hoping that these visitors will put in some money.
If you look at temples older than 500 years, there is a huge difference.
Temples like Konark were not just built for faith, but were built as an encyclopedia,
a museum, or a University to educate people.
This is why Konark should not be labeled merely as a Hindu temple, because people of any faith
can gain enormous amount of knowledge by visiting here.
Even if you are an atheist, the amount of information you can see in this temple, surpasses
any other museum in the world.
So, what do you think?
Was Konark Temple built merely to spread faith, or was it built as an encyclopedia in 3D,
to educate us?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
I am Praveen Mohan, thanks a lot for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe and I will talk to you soon.