Jagamohana, Konark Sun Temple, Odisha.
Continuing beyond the Bhoga Mandapa (Dance Hall) you are immediately faced with the Jagamohana, the assembly hall (or porch) of the Konark sun temple.
Many visitors to this site without any sort of guide might be misled into thinking this is the temple in it’s entirety, but sadly that is far from the case.
Image 2 is a diagram of the original temple structure, the areas marked in yellow show what remains today. It is estimated that the shikhara once reached a height of 70m, which would have made this the tallest ancient temple in India. The 11th century ruler Raja Bhoja had grand plans to build an even taller temple at Bhojeshwar in MP which would have scaled 100m, but this was never completed.
The soaring shikhara at Konark has long since crumbled, and there are conflicting opinions as to when and how this came to be. We know that it was partially still standing in the 1800s, a sketch by James Fergusson in 1847 (image 3) clearly shows it, but even by then it was beyond the point of being stabilized and reconstructed.
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