The Lesser-Known Counterpart Of Konark

Some might call it the lesser-known counterpart of Konark, but Modhera bowls Madhurima Chaudhuri over with the exquisite artisanship of its temple

- Madhurima Chaudhuri

A very Calcuttan thing to do every year is to visit the beach town of Puri nestled in the Odisha coastline. While some go there for religious purposes, I had recently gone after a sojourn of a few years to laze on the beach and gorge on delicious seafood. It is perfect for a weekend getaway and nearly always includes a day trip to Konark to see the magnificent ruins of the famous medieval Sun Temple.

This time, as soon as I entered the darkened weather-beaten complex of intricately carved stone, a testament to time, I had the strangest déjà vu—I was back in the tiny village of Modhera located at the other side of the country. Reminiscing about the lesser known (as some would say) Sun Temple in Gujarat was fascinating given how two very different regional architectural structures had sprung up in opposite parts of the subcontinent within the same time frame and were dedicated to the same Vedic deity—the sun god Surya.