Many teachers, parents and educationists in Odisha have taken offence to the wrong information on the world famous Sun Temple at Konark in a Hindi textbook published by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
According to reports, the mistakes are to be found in the CBSE’s book Umang meant for Class-V students.On pages 12 and 13 of Chapter-II of the book, an essay titled Konark Ka Surya Mandir has stated that 1,200 artisans were working under Sibei Santara and that Bishu Maharana was his assistant.Besides, it also says Bishu Maharana’s son Dharmapada, who had given the finishing touches to the dome atop the temple after the 1,200 stone artisans failed to do so, was 22 years of age.
legend has it that it was Bishu Maharana and not Sibei Santara who was the chief architect of the temple and also that his son Dharmapada was only just a 12-year-old child.It is believed that Dharmapada arrived at the temple construction site as a curious onlooker and found his father as well as artisans worried over a serious design problem, for which the work at the temple’s pinnacle had remained incomplete.
The boy, who had the knowledge of the theories relating to temple architecture, surprised all by solving the problem of fixing the last stone atop the temple all by himself. But Dharmapada laid down his life to save the honour of his father and the 1,200 artisans, who had failed to complete their job.Expressing resentment over the misrepresentation of the legend, parents and guardians have accused the CBSE of feeding wrong information to impressionable children.
