He dreamt of building a ‘Second Konark’ and purchased 100 acres near Puri for a majestic Sun Temple that was to be a replica of the original in Konark, an architectural marvel that never ceases to amaze the viewer even in its dilapidated form. But fate willed otherwise. After battling Covid at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, for 18 days, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra, 78, died of the disease on May 9. With him died his dream.
Odisha mourned the death of Raghunath—among the last surviving icons of the state, a colossus in his field whose sculptures adorn some of the best-known sites on the planet. Among them are a six-foot-tall greystone statue of the Sun God in the Central Hall of Parliament, a large lotus built out of a single black granite stone at Rajiv Gandhi’s final resting place, Vir Bhumi, and magnificent Buddha statues in Japan and Paris. Born into a family of sculptors in Puri’s Pathuria Sahi, whose ancestors built the original Sun Temple in Konark, Raghunath honed his skills under the watchful eyes of his maternal grandfather Aparti Mohapatra.
Hardly had the state recovered from the shock of Raghunath’s demise when news came of the death of his younger son, former Ranji cricketer and BCCI referee Prashant. Like his father, he was also under treatment for Covid at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. Prashant died the day the family was observing the 11th-day ritual of the senior Mohapatra on May 19. As if that was not bad enough, Raghunath’s elder son Jasobanta, who was under treatment at another Covid hospital in Bhubaneswar, died a day after his younger brother. Yasobanta used to manage the affairs of Raghunath Art & Crafts Foundation, founded by the senior Mohapatra in 2013. Raghunath and his two sons died—in a span of 12 days.
By Sandeep Sahu in Bhubaneswar
