Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Apr 27:

A number of teachers, parents and educationists in Odisha have taken offence to the wrong information on the world famous Sun temple at Konark in a Hindi text book published by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).Konark Temple

According to reports, the mistakes are to be found in CBSE's Hindi 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 1200 artisans were working under Sibei Santara and that Bishu Maharana was his assistant.

Besides, it also says that Bishu Maharana’s son Dharmapada who had given the finishing touches to the dome atop the temple after  1200 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 12-year-old child.

It is believed that Dharmapada, the 12 year old son of the chief architect Bisu Maharana, 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 little boy who had the knowledge of the theories of temple architecture surprised all by solving the problem of fixing the last stone atop the temple all by himself. But according to the legend Dharmapada laid down his life to save the honour of his father and the 1200 artisans.

Expressing resentment over the misrepresentation of the legend, parents and guardians have accused the CBSE of feeding wrong information to impressionable children.

Senior educationist Dr Pradip Kumar Mishra said, "Dharmapada and Baji Rout have been the two most revered child martyrs and heroes for generations of Odias and such wrong information on any one of them, especially in a CBSE text book, is simply unacceptable. This has deeply hurt the sentiments of all Odias".

“ The CBSE has made a mockery of nearly 4 crore Odias by wrong presentation of Odisha’s culture, legends and self-esteem”, he said while demanding an immediate correction of the mistakes in the text book.