BHUBANESWAR,INDIA, December 12, 2018 (RNS): Brigitte Viollet, a French businesswoman, spends three months of every year in the company of the Sun Temple in Konark, an ancient settlement on the east coast of India. Built in the 13th century by King Narasingha Deva I, the Sun Temple was designed as a colossal chariot mounted on 12 pairs of ornamented wheels to honor the Hindu God of the sun, Surya. Seven horses pull the chariot eastward toward dawn, symbolizing the seven days of the week. The spokes of the wheels make a sundial that helped ancient sages calculate time. “The scientific spirit and aesthetic sensibilities of ancient India are unmatched,” said Viollet, who is one of some 50,000 visitors the temple draws every year. [The temple was sacked and damaged multiple times between 1556 and 1800 ce by Muslim raiders.]
But to the dismay of many who treasure the monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984, the intricate stone carvings of deities and celestial beasts that cover the Sun Temple’s outer surface are being replaced by plain blocks of stone in an attempt to shore up the building. Many more have allegedly been discarded and strewn around the protected site. Conservation efforts began at Konark in the early 20th century, when British Indian archaeologists first recognized its worth. Later, fearing a structural collapse, the British teams filled the temple’s main audience hall with sand. As long ago as 1937, when the Archaeological Survey of India took charge of the project, removing the sand became the focus of restoration plans, but little was done. By 2010, at an international conference in Konark attended by UNESCO delegates, the ASI’s lack of action brought rebuke from conservationists. Consequently, a steering committee was formed to accelerate sand removal and sculpted stones’ treatment.
More of this article and some nice photos at “source”.