THE ORISSAN STYLE OF TEMPLE ARCHITECTURE
The temple of Konark represents the best in Orissan architectures; it is the culmination and climax of a long evolution of Orissan temples.Hence to understand this temple one has to know the various features ofthe Orissan style of architecture, its long evolution and the architectural lore ofOrissa. The monument has to be understood as the craftsmen understood it in the past. Orissa is a beautiful land of temples. A survey of extant temples reveals that there was brisk architectural activity from about the 6th - 7th centuries A.D. By the 11th century A.D., with the Lingaraja Temple, the Orissan temple style became complete and established its distinct features which were to shape the pattern for later temple-building activities. The style reached its climax about the middle of the thirteenth century A.D. In course of its evolution, it developed certain individual features of its own. Because of these distinctive features, Orissan temples form a class by themselves, and the many manifestations of this school of temple architecture in Orissa can conveniently be labelled as тАШKalinga styleтАЩ. Though the style was confined to the present Orissa, its influence was felt in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh; some of the art-motifs even migrated beyond India to Java in Indonesia. An inscription in the mukhamandapa of Amrtesvara temple at Holal (Bellary district Kamatak) mentions the Kalinga type along with the Nagar, Dravida and Vesara styles. This shows that even in the pre-Muslim period, the predominant temple style of Orissa came to be recognized as a distinct one. Main features of an Orissan Temple The typical Orissan temple consists of the sanctum and the porch- the two forming component parts of one architectural scheme.
