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The Templenet Encyclopedia
Temples of Tamilnadu
Imperial Chola Monuments - Part I (Periya Koyil
at Thanjavur)
Introduction Thanjavur Chola History Brihadeeswarar
Temple at Thanjavur
Introduction: Templenet focuses this
week on the glorious temples attributed to the reign of Raja
Raja Chola and his successors in the Thanjavur Cauvery
belt of South India.
Historically speaking, these temples are not as ancient
as the 274 odd Saivite temples and the 108 Vaishnavite
Shrines sung by the Nayanmars and Alwars of the 7th
through the 9th centuries, however they stand out as
towering monuments proclaiming the glory of the Chola
regime and its committment to the arts and culture.
This issue zeroes in on the Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur, Gangaikonda Choleeswarar Temple in Gangai
Konda Cholapuram, the Airavateeswarar Temple in Darasuram
and the Kambahareswarar temple at Tribhuvanam.
Thanjavur: The districts of
Thanjavur, Kumbhakonam and Nagappattinam (constituting
the erstwhile Thanjauvr district) boast of hundreds of
ancient temples. The town of Thanjavur was the seat of
the glorious Chola Empire of Tamilnadu, and was later on
the seat of the Nayaks and the Marathas. True to art
historian Fergusson, the Chola artists conceived like
giants and finished like jewellers.
Chola History: Raja Raja Chola I, was
clearly the greatest of the Chola Monarchs. During his
reign (985 - 1014 AD) he brought stability to the Chola
Kingdom, and restored from obscurity the brilliant
Tevaram hymns of the Saivite Nayanmars from obscurity.
Raja Raja was a great builder, and the Peruvudaiyar Koyil
or the Big Tmeple at Thanjavur was his creation. His son
Rajendra Chola (1014 - 1044 AD) was a greater conqueror
who marched all the way to the banks of the Ganges. This
march was commemorated with a new capital Gangaikonda
Cholapuram and another 'Periya Koyil'. Gangai Konda
Cholapuram was the capital of the Cholas for about two
centuries, although it is nothing more than a village now
with this rather well maintained magnificient temple. 35
Kilometers from Thanjavur lies Darasuram, once known as
Rajarajapuram - a part of the Chola's secondary capital
of Pazhaiyarai. Here is the Airavateeswarar Temple built
by Raja Raja II (1146 - 1173). It was during the reign of
Kulottunga III (1178 - 1218) that the Kambahareswarar
temple at Tribhuvanam was built.
These four temples under discussion stand out from the
others in Tamilnadu in that, it is only in these that the
Vimanam towers over the entrance Gopurams. After these
four temples, the Cholas went back to their traditional
style of building temples with larger Gopurams and
smaller central Vimanams. These temples are fitting
memorials to the glory of the rulers that built them, as
well as monuments of piety and a committment to art and
architecture.
Brihadeeswarar Temple at
Thanjavur: A 107 paragraph long inscription on
the walls of the Vimanam records the contributions of
Raja Raja Chola and his sister Kundavai to the Thanjavur
temple. The temple stands within a fort, whose walls are
later additions built in the 16th century. The towering
vimanam is about 200 feet in height and is referred to as
Dakshina Meru. The octogonal Shikharam rests on a single
block of granite weighing 81 tons. It is believed that
this block was carried up a specially built ramp built
from a site 6 kilometeres away from here. Huge Nandis dot
the corners of the Shikharam, and the Kalasam on top by
itself is about 3.8 meteres in height. Hundreds of stucco
figures bejewel the Vimanam, although it is possible that
some of these may have been added on during the Maratha
period. The Shivalingam - Peruvudaiyar,
Rajarajeswaramudaiyar - is a huge one, set in a two
storeyed sanctum, and the walls surrounding the sanctum
delight visitors as a storehouse of murals and sculpture.
The long prakaram surrounds the great temple (500
feet/250 feet), and the walls surrounding the prakaram
again go back to Raja Raja Cholan's period. The walls
house long pillared corridors, which abound in murals,
Shiva Lingams and Nandis. The Periya Nayaki temple within
the temple is a later addition from the Pandya period,
and so is the Subramanyar Temple sung later by the Saint
poet Arunagirinathar.
Incidents from the lives of the Nayanmars, several of the
108 Bharata Natyam Dance postures, manifestations of
Shiva (Aadalvallaan - Nataraja, Tripurantaka,
Dakshinamurthi etc.) are depicted in sculptured panels or
in exquisite Chola murals. Both the interior, and the
exterior walls of the temple, are replete with images of
the kind described above.
The sanctum, the ardhamandapam, the mukhamandapam and the
Mahamandapam, although distinct, form a composite unit
with an imposing appearance that awes visitors, forcing
one to wonder how such timeless architectural feat was
executed about a 1000 years ago. Entrances to the
Mandapams and the towered entrances to the Prakarams are
majestic. The grandeur of the architecture and the
sculptural finesse speaks volumes of the skills of the
Imperial Cholas.
Inscriptions refer to Shiva as Dakshina Meru Vitankar and
Aadavallan. The Nandi, which dates back to the Nayak
period, is housed in its own mandapam and it matches up
to the grandeur and size of the temple. It is a
monolithic Nandi weighing about 25 tonnes, and is about
12 feet high and 20 feet long.
Visit the featured links for more information on
nearby attractions.
Visit the other Chola monuments at
Gangai Konda Cholapuram, Darasuram and Tribhuvanam in our
next issue.
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of Tamilnadu][The
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