'Who Removed My Kartikeya?': How Sanctum Sanctorums Of Many Temples — Broken By Invaders — Can Be Revived

India is united through timeless mystic strands. Some of them visible. Some of them popular. Some of them hidden in plain sight, waiting for us.

One such strand is the series of sun temples that unite India. The Konark Surya temple in the east, Modhera Surya temple in the west, Mulastan Surya temple in, what is now Pakistan, and Marthanda Surya temple in Kashmir — all these unite India.

In the Puranas, the pan-Indian spread of Surya worship is associated with Samba, the son of Sri Krishna through Jambavathi, the daughter of Ramayana-fame Jambavan.

Actually, this might suggest, in terms of history, a very ancient root to Sun worship.

Historically though, the Multan temple was built not later than sixth century CE, Martanda temple at Kashmir around eighth century, and the Konark temple around thirteenth century.

(You can read about the Pan-Indian and deeper roots of Sun worship here.)

The Modhera temple in Gujarat as we see today, was built around the eleventh century. The Chalukya king, Bhima I, built the temple. It was destroyed with a fundamentalist fury by the forces of Allauddin Khilji in 1299 CE.

My visit to the Modhera temple was on 4 February 2023 and was planned by Prof Ram Sharma of the Centre for Indic Studies at Indus University.

The team was accompanied and guided by Dr Shika Roi, a historian with an in-depth knowledge of ancient and classical Indian history, archaeology and also local traditions.

Even as we enter the Sun Temple we see a board that announces, smart energy centre, electric vehicles charging station and solar car parking — a characteristic Modi touch!

Dr. Roi explained how Bhima-I, who built the temple, had been less charitably described in the historical narrative as the one who fled during Islamist invasions, though what happened was actually more nuanced. The temple definitely showed the commitment the king had for Dharma.

The temple, though demolished, has been painstakingly reconstructed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This was no easy work.

An in-depth understanding of the architectural knowledge of classical North Indian Hindu temple style is needed to reassemble the temple from the heap of broken material.

The traditional water body — Theertham — before the temple is called Ram Kund. The place surrounding is called Dharma-Aaranya. A brief discussion followed, as to the centrality of forests to the Dharmic civilisation of Bharat.

However, what made the entire trip a bundle of joy and energy, was the unbridled enthusiasm and cheery nature of an eight-year-old child — Janvi the daughter of Prof Ram.

At the Kund, most of the beautiful little shrines had no deities inside them. The little girl was by the side of one such small shrine.

The outline of the Divine was there. It also included the outline of a peacock like figure. ‘Kartikeya’ announced Dr Shika as the girl looked with a melancholic expression on her face.

Every space overflew with Puranic and Itihasic episodes. Dr Ram Sharma was explaining how our Puranic and Ithihasic literature should not be reduced to a very physical and empirical history.

The creation of our Kavis was considered more superior to the physical realm created by Brahma, he explained. Yes! The realms of Kavis need not be limited by the second law of thermo dynamics indeed!

Passing the beautifully carved Thorana and the Sthambas (pillars) which Dr Shika explained as a miniature temple by themselves, we entered the chamber that contains the sanctum sanctorum.

There once stood a very mighty Surya before the invaders meticulously destroyed it. She pointed out how the boots of the Sun God showed the Kushan influence in style and how this culture has so wonderfully absorbed and harmonized various elements within it!

A pillar shows Sri Rama getting angry at Varuna, even after the former had performed penance and the Samudra Raja had still not appeared. Now furious, Sri Rama aims an arrow at Varuna.

At the fierce form of the Lord, Hanuman prostrates himself — a rare posture of Hanuman depicted in sculptures. Another panel shows the Ram Setu construction.

Yet another panel shows the celebrated scene of Siva and Arjuna striking the boar — the famous Kirartarjuneeya scene.

The girl was looking at the empty sanctum sanctorum.

Dr Ram Sharma narrated an incident. When they came first to this temple, the parents had told the girl that they were visiting the sun temple. What they did not tell her was that it was not a functional temple and that it was a reconstructed one.

The little girl had expected to see, as usual, a majestic Deity at the sanctum. ‘She was shocked to see the empty sanctum. It was nothing short of a trauma for the child’, he reminisced.

I understood the way she looked with loving forlorn at the small empty shrine of Kartikeya at Ram Kund. Even as he was narrating this incident to me, a group of tourists, mostly youngsters entered.

One should say that Gujaratis are more disciplined and respectful in an ancient structure, than most Indians I have seen. They formed a semi circle around the empty sanctum and then spontaneously came out a cry ‘Surya Bhagwan ki Jai!’

The moment will remain for me one of the most memorable and sacred moments of my life: the agony of a child for the deity at the empty sanctum, juxtaposed with the spontaneous hailing of the missing Bhagwan by the assembled Hindu tourists!

• It is through that Dharmic pain of the child that we live!

We live and we live upholding a Dharmic civilisation and, as a nation.

That set the thoughts rolling. In any archaeologically reconstructed monument, the archaeologists strictly do not allow modern remaking of the broken idols, etc.

Juxtapose this with the fact that the old pagan Gods and Goddesses and the demolished temples that European archaeology deals with, are now gone, in the West. The Gods and Goddesses have lost their worshippers. The pagan traditions of the West are no more living.

But Hindu Dharma is a living tradition. It is there in the tears of the child for the lost Deity and it is there is the spontaneous hailing of the Deity at the empty sanctum.

So should not our approach to these monuments be different?

Fortunately today we have technologies to find that right balance. The temple could have a minimal symbolic worship. Even let the Garbagriha be empty — as a warning to the Hindus against any complacency with respect to predatory civilisations.

Instead, let there be — as the visitor looks at the dark sanctum — an authentic holographic image of Surya Bhagwan as he was. It can be very easily done and it can be even a game-changer for our monuments which have been destroyed.

As we came out and did a pradakshana of the temple marvelling at every sculpture, as Dr Shika continued explaining the architectural components and Puranic details of every inch of the sculptured marvel, that is the Surya temple, we realised that in India there is no discontinuity with the past. The past lives in us.

By the side of the Surya temple we found a functional small Shiva shrine. As we worshipped and stood before the Nandi, we saw on its back the endless knot that comes to us from the time of Harappa. You can find it in the hands of Varuna in that very temple and in the inscriptions of the region, as also on the Harappan seals! The designs vary but the inner essence of endlessness is the same.

That moment one heard almost like a whisper in that gentle passing breeze under the blazing afternoon sun एष धर्मः सनातनः (Esha Dharmah Sanatanah)