The Amalaka Detail

Deepak woke with a start. He could only see lazy dust particles floating through strings of light leaking into a black expanse that engulfed him. The warmth of the rising sun that had lured him into a morning nap outside the temple had transformed into a blanket of darkness. The soothing sea breeze had been halted into a stiff column of cool dampness. He heard a scuffle to his left and then the sound of a small rock falling to his right. He sensed something was moving through the space around him. Unable to completely see in the low light, the boy could feel his other senses becoming more acute. He realized he was sitting on a cold stone floor with his back against a smooth cylindrical mass. Deepak smelled dirt and a hint of musk. He found himself strangely comfortable given the mystery of his surroundings.

Suddenly a screech echoed in front of him as a small wall of stone crumbed with a muted thud. Deepak had reflexively drawn his knees to his chest just in time to pull clear of the stones as they spilled in front of him. A cone of daylight instantly bathed the boy revealing the walls around him. A friendly monkey jumped down to the floor beside Deepak and cooed. The boy instantly recognized it as a Gray Langur common to the wildlife refuge that surrounded the Konark Temple and the town of Odisha. The curious gray primates were often referred to as Hanuman Langurs due to their inquisitive and sometimes mischievous nature.

“Hanuman,” Deepak muttered under his breath. “This seemingly mischievous specimen was certainly living up to the deity namesake,” he thought to himself.

As if the monkey could hear the voice in the boy’s mind, the animal tilted its head to the side with a look of intense curiosity. Then, grabbing Deepak’s thumb, he tugged at the boy to move.

Deepak slowly stood and turned. The room he was in resembled a traditional garba griha, much like he imagined it would look inside the Konark Temple. The central sanctum sanctorum space was a tight square room with a single short stairwell leading to a doorway carved in the stone wall. Deepak realized he had been resting against a lingam icon in the middle of the garba griha. The lingam’s polished phallic form reflected the bath of light off its metallic surface. Resting on a low, flat base, the icon stood two and a half feet tall. Deepak recognized it from rituals he had participated in at modern temples. The phallic shrine often represented Shiva and was regarded as a symbol of validation or “proof” of the temple’s purpose.

Continuing to pull against Deepak’s relaxed hand, the furry primate leapt to perch on the boy’s shoulder. Stretching its small raisin finger, it pointed toward a brightly colored mural on the wall behind the lingam.

As Deepak scanned the ancient artwork a story began to reveal itself in his mind. As his eyes surveyed the images across the wall he recognized Arka, the sun deity which the Konark Temple was built to honor.

"Arka, also known as Surya," Deepak whispered to himself, "was seated on a mighty chariot being pulled by five horses."

As the boy's quiet voice narrated what he was seeing in the mural, the images started to turn bright and come alive. Suddenly, the chariot looked as if it were rushing toward Deepak.

The monkey began to hop up and down excitedly on Deepak’s shoulder as if it were worried that the chariot might run them over. Just as the horses were about to collide with the boy and the monkey, Arka turned into a large red grapefruit ball.

Frightened, the monkey hid its eyes and let out a whining screech. The shadow of the monkey’s head, cast on the wall beside the mural, came to life. Even though Deepak’s newfound friend had tucked its forehead under its tiny paws, its shadow began moving independently across the wall’s carved stone lines. On the wall, Deepak saw the silhouette of a monkey’s mouth start to engulf the bright ball.

Just as the red dish was about to disappear into the darkness of the monkey’s shadow, a flash of light strobed through the hole in the wall where the sunlight had just shown. A distant clap of thunder could be felt through the granite structure. The shadow of the monkey fell lifeless below the red disc. The red disc started growing larger with a glow that began to engulf the room. Out of it came two open hands with palms up presenting a manuscript scroll of linen wrapped around a wooden dowel.

Distraught by the mural vision, the small primate leapt from Deepak’s shoulder to the lingam, grabbed the manuscript and then tumbled to the floor. Tugging at Deepak’s shirt, it moved quickly toward the doorway.

As Deepak turned to follow the monkey, he recalled a story his uncle had told him of the half man, half monkey Hanuman, who had mistaken Arka, the sun deity, for a grapefruit and had tried to eat it.

Deepak laughed. “You didn’t want me to see that, did you,” he called to the animal bouncing ahead of him.

Following the little creature out of the garba griha, Deepak found himself moving through an intermediate space that acted as an antechamber to the room he had just been in.

“This must be the antarala,” he said aloud. “It connects the central garba griha to the main maha mandapa.”

The monkey squealed with approval.

Moving through the pillared boundary of the porch-like maha mandapa, Deepak and the monkey found their way outside into rain and onto the outer temple grounds. The two turned to face the temple. Deepak gasped. The ancient structure was now nearly complete. All the original tower forms that had long ago deteriorated or been destroyed stood in place. A long earthen ramp that appeared to start well beyond the ground’s tree line rose to meet the top of the highest tower. Only the capstone was missing.

Seeking refuge under the cover of one of the surrounding shrines, the Monkey unrolled the manuscript to reveal a diagram of the capstone. The ink and charcoal drawing appeared to be a composite of two different artists. The smudged charcoal formed the basis for the building mass and the ink outlined details and notes. In Sanskrit, large letters at the top read “Amalaka.”

“These are the boy’s sketches,” Deepak exclaimed.