There is a couplet in Tamil, which goes like this
“Oh Lord! Does these two eyes enough to see the beauty of yours?”
This is the same feeling I had when I visited the 1000 years old Thanjavur Big Temple. Thanjavur, an ancient city much older than the state’s capital Chennai or even the nation’s capital Delhi was the stronghold of the Chola Empire. Raja Raja Chola was the Chola King who built this Temple in the honor of Lord Shiva. Believed to be started in 1003 CE, it was completed in 1010 CE, thus it celebrated its millennium celebration in a grand manner in 2010.
Built wholly by Granite which were brought from far off place as it was not available locally, this grand temple has a pyramidal Gopuram or Tower that had many sculptures of dancing apsaras and many deities. While this central structure was built by the Cholas, the latter kings too had an impact over the temple complex as they too contributed on their part to build and maintain this complex. Thus, there are several other smaller temple structures surrounding the main temple each with their special deities build by the Nayaks and Maratha kings.
There are three entrances or gopurams to this temple. The first one is the most recent one built by the Maratha king in 16th century to protect the temple from invaders. There are also fortified walls built by him. The second one commemorates the victory of the king Raja Raja Chola’s army over the neighboring kingdom of Kerala and so it is called Keralantaka Gopuram. The third is the most ancient and was built along with the Grand temple inside. All the three gopurams are breaths takingly enormous with the last two having large number of beautiful sculptures that are very welcoming.
Inside, there is a large open space for the magnificent view of the temple. There is a Nandi statue (a holy cow) in front of the temple which was craved from a single stone. It is said that the non-availability of granite in the surrounding area resulted in the procurement of granite from far off places. Thus, these granites were transported via boats on river Cauvery and huge elephants were employed to drag them to the construction site. There is a still an ongoing debate of how these huge tons of granite were lifted to such heights (the central temple tower is 216 ft or 66 m high). But there is an understanding that the Cholas might have taken the same path of Egyptians who build the pyramids, i.e. a large sloping mound of earth were created to drag the sculpted granite to each heights of the tower slowly increasing the mound size. On completion the mound was taken down. It is said that the mound might have been 1km long for the elephants to drag the granite in correct balance. Thus, these granites might have reached such heights; also a notable point is that these granites stones are kept together by a method called “locking method” where these stones are interlocked with each other, just like a Jigsaw Puzzle, to sustain the whole structure's weight in an equal balance and to last long. These interlocked stones would have fused together in this 1000 years.
The wise king has also made arrangements for the future generations to know the contributions of each and every person involved in the construction of this complex by inscribing the names of those involves. There are hundreds of them inscribed in ancient Tamil language. And there are beautiful paintings and murals of several persons adorning the walls that surround the temple. This includes paintings drawn during the king’s time to the recent one under the Maratha king in 16th century. Also, in those days this temple was a large business place for the people who lived there, selling from flowers to butter etc, for the poojas that took place in the temple.
These temple maintained now by the Archeological Survey of India is in an excellent condition. It has sustained countless monsoons and four reported earthquakes in its 1000 years. There is no ticket to enter the temple, but everyone should leave there footwear at the second gate at the counter provided. There is also no religious restriction and everyone can visit this complex. But be sure to respect the sanctity of the temple and wear suitable clothes and act accordingly.
It was said to us that the temple looks more beautiful under the moon light and the facade lighting at evening. But we were not able to see it as we had other plans and had to leave. But we will be back soon.
No wonder this place rightly deserves to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A beauty to behold and pinnacle of Cholas or Ancient Tamils architectural grandeur, this temple cannot be missed in one’s lifetime.
It will be interesting to know that there is a myth that the Maratha King Serfoji II built an underground passage from this temple to Fort Manora which is 65km away.It has never been found though. I have discussed about it in my first post about Fort Manora here
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| One of the magnificent entrance to the Big temple |
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| Keralantaka Gopuram |
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| It is said that the temple was two tiered i.e it had an upper floor and it might have collapsed, this picture does evoke the doubt as it clearly shows an outline of an upper floor |
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| An intricately sculpted horse, highly adorned. It is so intricate that you can even see the stripes or coils of the coir that is binding to to the horse's face |
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| Another one of the marvelous piece. This is a staircase to the Subramanya temple. It seems that the elephant is being subdued by the humans. |
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| Front view of the grand temple complex. The height of the tower is 66 meters |
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| Ancient Tamil Inscription preserved in an excellent condition. There are several names of person who were involved in the construction of the temple and also there are several names of persons who danced here during festivities. |
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| A smaller version of the grand temple dedicated to Lord Subramanya. Nevertheless adoringly beautiful. And when viewed from this point both the tower looks the same height and looks like merged with each other. |
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| One of the many painting, drawn during the Maratha and Nayak kingdom. Here we see Lord Subramanya seated on a beautiful peacock, with two person fanning him on both side. There are several Siva Linga around those place. |
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| Another magnificent painting of a person attacking giant snakes. That person maybe a Nayak King. Thank goodness there aren't any huge snakes of those size anymore. |
Do you know? The real name of this temple kept by the Chola King is Peruvudaiyar Kovil (பெருவுடையார் கோவில்) , later due to the conquest of various North Indian Kings here, the name was sanskritized to Brahadeeshwarar Kovil, here 'Kovil' means 'Temple' in tamil
