An Untold Story of Kalapahad-The Iconoclast

Kalapahad (Black Mountain) was the title of an Iconoclast Muslim general of Mughal governor Sultan Sulaiman Karrani of Bengal. According to some historical documents he was Rajiv Lochan Ray a hindu brahmin, an Oriya general of Gajapati Mukundadeva, the last emperor of the empire of Kalinga-Utkala, convert to Islam. After conversion to Islam he took a Muslim name but is popularly know as Kalapahad. He was instrumental in conquering parts of Odisha for the Afghans of Bengal.

After the defeat in the Battle of Tribeni, Sulaiman Karrani was forced to make peace. He realized that he would never be able to conquer Bhurishrestha(Kalinga/Orissa) unless he could defeat Rajiv Lochan Ray. Sulaiman Karrani invited Rajiv Lochan Ray for negotiations in his palace. Rajiv Lochan Ray met and fell in love with the daughter of Sulaiman Karrani and willingly converted to Islam. According to other sources, Sulaiman Karrani planned to have Rajiv fall in love with beautiful and charming daughter by including her in meetings and feasts with him. He offered Rajiv Lochan Ray to convert to Islam to which he offered to convert his daughter to Hinduism and marry her.However, King Gajapati Mukunda Deva was opposed to such a matrimonial alliance and decreed that conversion to Hinduism was illegal. Enraged, Rajiv Lochan Ray converted and married Karrani's daughter taking the name of Kalapahad (Black Hill - the destroyer).But repentance came and he wanted to come back to Hinduism. For this he came to Puri to convert himself again to Hinduism-but the orthodox pandas of Puri Jagannath temple refused him to accept as Hindu In tune with the dictates of this new faith, he now believed that idol worship was a heathen activity, and went about destroying all Hindu idols in the region and embraced the new faith with the passion of the convert. He led Karrani's revenge over Mukundadeva and attacked Odisha. He defeated Mukundadeva and sacked major towns and religious places of Odisha including Hijli,Cuttack,Jajpur,Sambalpur,Konark,Ekamrakhsetra, Puri etc. in 1568.




The most popular theory about the root of the fall of Konark Sun temple rests with the Kalapahad. According to the history of Odisha, Kalapahad invaded Odisha in 1508. He destroyed Konark sun temple, as well as a number of Hindu temples in Odisha. The Madala Panji of Puri Jagannath temple describes how Kalapahad attacked Odisha in 1568. Including Konark temple, he broke most of the images in most of the Hindu temples in Odisha. Though the stone walls are of 20 feet (6.1 m) to 25 feet (7.6 m) thick, he somehow managed to displace the Dadhinauti (Arch stone) and thus caused the tower to collapse. He also damaged most of the images and other side temples of Konark. Due to displacement of the Dadhinauti, the tower gradually collapsed and the roof of the Mukasala was also damaged, due to the stones falling down from the temple top.

Kalpahad was buried in Sambalpur, Odisha. Large number of tombs believed to be those of the dead soldiers of Kalapahar are located in a mango grove near Samaleswari College building on the bank of river Mahanadi in Odisha.

Consequently, Orissa came under Muslim control in 1568. There were constant attempts to destroy the Hindu temples. The Pandas of Puri, to save the sanctity of the Puri temple, took away the Lord Jagannath from the Srimandir and kept the image in a secret place. Similarly, it is said that the Pandas of Konark took away the presiding deity of the Sun temple and buried it under the sand for years. Latter on the image was said to have been removed to Puri and kept in the temple of Indra, in the compound of the Puri Jagannath temple.

According to others, the Puja image of the Konark temple is yet to be discovered. But others hold the view that the Sun image now kept in the National Museum of Delhi was the presiding deity of the Konark Sun temple. However, the Sun worship in the Konark temple was ended upon the removal of the image from the temple. This resulted in the end of pilgrimages to Konark. The port at Konark was also closed, due to pirate attacks. Konark was as glorious a city for Sun worship as it was for commercial activities, but after the cessation of these activities, Konark became deserted and was left to develop as a dense forest for years.