The name of "Konark" is evidently derived from the name of its presiding deity Konari which means Kona (corner), Arka (sun). Now the name Konark distinguished both the place and the temple. According to these puranas, Samba, son of Krishna and his wife Jambavati,very proud of his handsome apperarance and once ridiculed the divide sage Narada, who mischief maker that he even ordinarily was, took recourse to an unsaintly scheme to arrange himself, by a curing device held samba to the bathing place of his step mother,who was struck with his per Sonal Charm. slipping quietly the sage led Krishnaa to this spot. Incensed at his son's apperent lock of oronrietv.
Kishna cursed him to be smitten with leprsy which would naturally affect his beauty. He was however, directed to repair to Mitravana near the Chandrabhaga, where he was to propitiate Surya, the leader of all skin diseases. Samba acted upon the advice. After 12 years of severe penance he succeeded in pleasing the god and was cured of his illness. Once while bathing in the ChandraBhaga the following day he discovered an image of the god, which had been fashioned out of Suryas body by Vaswakarma, and placed it in a temple from the time of Samba i.e. from about 1900 B.C. The place became famous and worship of sun was prevalent at Konark.
In the 9th century A.D. Purandar Keshari the 13th king of Keshari Dynasty had built a temple for the sun god on the bank of the river Chandrabhaga and establised 8 brahmin sasans (Villages granted to the brahmins by the king) for the sun God.
After some centuries. The reasons for selecting the site of Konark for the construction of such a huge structure probably comes from a story of Mayadevi. The king Narasimha Dev had love with Mayadevi the beautiful princess of the chieftain of Sisupalgarh. Once while the king was in war field Mayadevi died suddenly and her dead body was immersed in the nearby river in a closed box, Raja Narasimha dev on return from the war searched for the said box and hound it floating in the mouth of the ver Chandrabaga near Konark. In H'rpetuation of his sweat love for Itryadevi, the king Narasimha Dev hlilt the suntemple at Konark, beside (ilich a small temple of Mayadevi HI stands in commemoration of Hwir love.
Another story tells that the itieen of raja Anangavim Dev was idessed with son Narasimha Dev my due to her worship of sun god
konark. While Narasimha Dev in is young age won the battle in outhern border and brought some Ilooty, His mother the queen of Angavim Dev, advised him to built a Digger temple for the sun God at konark. The temple was built most probably the middle of 13th century (between 1240 and 1270 A.D.) by Me king Narasimha Dev of Ganga rynasty.
In 1568 A.D the Afghan king of Bengal Sultan Sulaiman. After Afghan conquest of cuttack, his genral or Illahabad captured Konark in 1568 A.D. The sun temple has been destroyed and has collapsed in course of time.
In 1623 A.D. Prince Shah-',Man passed through Orissa. Issued order, Reinstalled the images in the Puri temple in the year 1624 A.D. In 628 A.D. when Bakhar Khan was cling Orissa on behalf Shahja-Han, ir_;sued order reinstall the images, in 1628 A.D. Raja Narasimha Dev 11 had ordered for taking measurement of all the temples at Konark and made an account of the risuals of all gods and goddesses. At the time of measurement the sun temple was in existance upto. Muslims who probably violated the sanctity of the temple, either by their entry to it. It is obvious from the account of AbdulFazal that the Temple succeeded in arousing the curiosity of even the Mulims of by the Removal of the Gold and Copper. Thus for saken by the presiding deity, the deserted temple fell naturally into Utter neglect.
In 1815 A.D. the British artist of Colin Mackenzie, came to Konark and prepared a drawing of the Sun temple northern face of a part of the eastern stair and the adjoining terrace, which shows two wheels and a pair of horess.
In 1837 A.D. James Fergusson, who visited the temple and prepared a drawing of it, estimated the height of the fragment an angle, of the sanctuary. Sir Ashelly Eden, lieutenant Governor of Bengal visited to Konark, suggested some repairs at a small outlay. Accordingly in 1881 A.D., the public works department done some repairs in 1882-83 A.D.
In 1982 A.D. The question of repairs cropped up once more when the leftenent Governor Sir Charles A.Elloit, following his visit to the temple felt the necessity of its inspection by a competent person to suggest suitable measures for its conservation.
The visit of Sir John wood-bur, the lieftnent, Governor, to Konark, in December 1900 A.D. put an end to this statemate and aurgured bright prospects for the temple. In February. 1901 A.D. T.Bloch,
Archacological Surveyour of the Ben gal circle submitted Suggestion fo the temple. The Government of Ben. gal accepted the suggestions, and estimate was prerared at most im- mediately for clearing the sanc aruond the porch and the compounc wall and excavating rubbish an stones from the basement of the E porch. As early as April, 1901 A.D. was exposed a wheel by excavating a trench at the base of the porch. The year 1901 A.D. was thus a mem- orable year in the life of the temple, as it witnessed for the first time the firm launching of a well - planned campaign to save the temple at any cost by adopting suitable measures with keen archacological conscience.
The loose stones were re-set in their original position the essential works for conserving the porch was completed in 1905 A.D. In 1906-1907 A.D. The damaged work completed in 1915 A.D. Lightning-conductors were also fixed while a sculpture-shed was constructored and the house at the images and important carved pieces. In 1922 A.D. all the major structural repairs like the re-building of the wall-tops of the sanctuary of temples.
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