In 13th century AD, 1,200 workers toiled for 12 years to build the Konark Temple which is spread across 12 acres. It was built during the reign of King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty. The temple was built in the form of a chariot. An engineering masterpiece, the stone structure was held together with interlocked metals. Two huge magnets weighing more than five tonnes kept the building together. It is said that the idol of the Sun God was made of an alloy of eight metals and was suspended in mid air balanced by the two powerful magnets.
King Narasimhadeva I had set a deadline for the completion of the temple and threatened to behead all the workers if the deadline was not met. The temple was completed in time but the crown stone of the temple could not be mounted. With time running out, the chief architect went into depression at the thought of the pending doom. A 12-year-old boy, Dharmapada, approached the chief architect and offered to fix the crown stone. He solved the problem and revealed his true identity—he was the son of the chief architect and had come in search of his father who had left before he was born.
Everyone was elated, but there was a fear that if the king came to know that a 12-year-old had fixed an architectural problem, which skilled workers could not, he would anyway kill them. When Dharmapada heard this, he jumped into the Chandrabhaga river from the top of the temple. With his suicide, the temple became unholy and the Sun God was never worshipped there.