Sex and Salvation: a study of Konark"s erotic sculpture

The Sun Temple of Konark, popularly known as the Black Pagoda,
stands on the sea-shore on the route across the Indian Ocean and through
the Bay of Bengal, to and from the East Indies. That is why the world
has known of it for quite a long time, has known of it ever since adventu-
ring sailorsDutch, Portuguese, French or Englishsaw it, and beheld, on
the walls of this exceptionally impressive structure, strangely intriguing
figurespostures of love and lust! They carried back home exciting tales
about this temple, and so its name and fameor notorietyspread far and
wide. Time and vastly improved means of travel have greatly added to
these and its lure today accounts for countless visitors to the country.

Though this temple carries a great deal of other fine carvings,
obviously the clue to the attraction of Konark lies, for the most part, in its
erotic sculpture. In this field, this one single monument will hold forth
against any other holy edifice, or even a group of temples, carrying similar
sculpture.

Divergent views are held by critics on this matter of erotic sculpture.
Whereas some people believe that all such work is wicked, and a tribute to
the powers of darkness, others believe that it is a joyous portrayal of a great
and high philosophy. Was it plain obscenity or a complex ritual? A graphic
delineation of a new path to paradise? Or, no more than pandering to
the passions in an effort to popularize some creed or fill the temples coffers
and the kings treasury? All this is worth examining, and is examined in
this bookwith special reference to the philosophy that promises salvation
through sex, a philosophy that advocated