Solar Temple

A sun temple (or solar temple) is a building used for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, dedicated to the sun or a solar deity. Such temples were built by a number different cultures and are distributed around the world including in India, China, Egypt, Japan and Peru. Some of the temples are in ruins, undergoing excavation, preservation or restoration and a few are listed as World Heritage Sites individually or as part of a larger site, such as Konark.

China

The Temple of the Sun in Beijing, China, was built in 1530 during the Ming dynasty by the Jiajing Emperor, together with new temples dedicated to the Earth and the Moon, and an expansion of the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of the Sun was used by the imperial court for elaborate acts of worship involving fasting, prayers, dancing and animal sacrifices, as part of a year-long cycle of ceremonies involving all the temples. An important element was the colour red, which was associated with the Sun, including red utensils for food and wine offerings, and red clothes for the emperor to wear during the ceremonies. The temple is now part of a public park.

Egypt

In ancient Egypt, there were a number of sun temples. Among these old monuments is the Great Temple of Ramses at Abu Simbel, and complexes built by the Fifth Dynasty, of which only two examples survive, that of Userkaf and of Niuserre. The Fifth Dynasty temples usually had three components, a main temple building at a higher elevation, accessed by a causeway, from a much smaller entrance building. In 2006, archaeologists found ruins underneath a market in Cairo, which could possibly be the largest temple built by Ramesses II.

Indian subcontinent

The sun temples of the Indian subcontinent are dedicated to the Hindu deity Surya, with the most prominent among them being the Konark Sun Temple World Heritage Site. at Konark in Odisha and the Sun Temple at Modhera, Gujarat, built in 1026–1027. Both are now ruins, having been destroyed by invading muslim armies. Konark was constructed around 1250, by Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. Surya was an important deity in early Hinduism, but sun worship largely declined as a principal deity around the 12th century. In Manipuri mythology, the sun god ''Korouhanba'' is the synonym of the Hindu deity Surya. Other Surya or sun temples in the Indian subcontinent include:

* Andhra Pradesh
** Surya Narayana Temple at Arasavalli in Andhra Pradesh built in 7th century by king Devendra Varma, ruler of Kalinga The temple is constructed in such a way that on the day of Radhasaptami, the Sun's rays directly fall on the feet of the Sri Suryanarayana Swami, the deity at the temple.

* Assam
** Surya Pahar Temple at Sri Surya Pahar in Assam built in 9th century

* Bihar
** Deo Surya Mandir in Deo, Bihar
** Bhaskar Temple at Gaya in Bihar
** Bhaskar Temple at Parsa in Bihar
** Bhaskar Temple at Patna in Bihar
** Bhaskar Temple at Pitath
** Bhaskar Temple at Bhakura
** Bhaskar Chhth ghat, Selhauri in Belhauri
** Manjesh Bhaskar Temple at
** Budha Bhaskar temple at Garhara
** Bhushan Bhaskar temple at Chain Singh Patti
** Bhagwan Bhaskar Dham at Kurmuri in Arrah
** Surya Temple at Sanda
** Sun Temple at Nalanda

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases