Brihadisvara Temple

A Monument dedicated to Siva. Brihadisvara temple is located in Thanjavur 322 km to the south-west of Chennai. From Chennai, Thanjavur can be reached by rail or road. The Brihadisvara temple is about 1.5 km away from the railway station.

History

History says, the Chola kings were great conquerors. It doesn't mean their conquests were limited to just south India alone. At one particular period Cholas conquests went up to as far as the river Ganga. The Cholas brought  Sri Lanka and a part of Burma, the Malayan peninsula and some islands of south-east Asia under their regime.

Great Builders

The Cholas are not just blood thirsty conquers, They are builders with great  ambitions and architectural erudition. Some of the edifices are the real definitions of Architectural excellence.

Thanjavur

Thanjavur gained prominence in the ninth century under the rule of Cholas. The first great ruler of Chola dynasty was Vijayalaya ( 850-71). He was the one who made Thanjavur his capital. Emperor Rajaraja (985-1012) built the famous Brihadisvara temple. Besides this, Rajendra, the son of Rajaraja (1012-1044) built second Brihadisvara templw at Gangaikondacholapuram.

Brihadisvara temple is described as the most ambitious edifice of all the monuments undertaken by the Chola rulers. Rajaraja's endowments to the temple along with his family members, high officials and noble men are mind boggling. The endowments are in the form of large images made of bronze and gold. All the details pertaining to the endowments without missing even the tiniest detail were described in detail in the inscriptions running all along the area around the temple.

Though a great number of the precious endowments disappeared in to oblivion, from the few remaining precious endowments one can estimate the worth of the treasures once housed in the temple.. This further throws light on the love of Cholas for building larger than life monuments embedded with the highesst standards in art and architecture.

Inscriptions mirror the then social and economic conditions

The details inscribed all along the plinth of the temple enlisted even the smallest of the endowments, the protocol of giving and taking and payment of interests on the amounts of donations for the regular usage of all types of items of worship. This type of vivid descriptions give lot of clues to unravel the life-style and social customs prevalent in those days. Every inch of a sculpture or a painting in the interiors of Brihadisvara temple tell a lot about the artistic inclinations of the patrons.

Not a mere temple

Brihadisvera temple is not a mere temple that's dedicated to Siva.. Dance and Music were regular ingredients in day to day activities of the temple. The huge Mandapas in the temple will become a hub of activities every evening. It may be chanting of Vedas and Devaram hymns or may be a dance performance as a tribute to the reigning deity of the temple. Every artist's worth, every employee's  ability,every skill of an artisan were duly recognized and rewarded by the rulers. And all the details about the rewards and awards bestowed on the subjects were recorded in the inscriptions that run all around the plinth of the temple.

The chola rulers' love for fine arts and other performing arts was beyond anybody;s imagination. This is visible in the fact that Rajaraja constructed separate streets to accommodate four hundred  dancing women who  are assigned thr divine duties and attached to the temple. The Chola kings made the temples self sufficient by setting apart paddy and other agricultural fields, there by utilizing the income from those fields exclusively for the maitenance expenditure of the temple.

Ingenious methods used in the construction of the temple

Large blocks of granite were used for the construction of the entire temple. Granite was not available in the nearby regions. So one can very well imagine the hardships faced by the builders to fetch large blocks of granite from far off places through elephants. If this is one part of the episode, the other part of the episode is lifting these huge blocks of Granite to a height of 60.96 m high, where the vimana or the Gopuram has to be erected. And after lifting the granite blocks to the destination, the sculptors have to take charge to carve or sculpt the forms in accordance to the stipulations laid by the Vastu.

Just imagine how these seemingly impossible acts were done and made possible that stood undisturbed for centuries.  The following example will clear the doubts.

At the Sikhara or the peak of the temple  a huge block weighing  nearly 82 tonnes has to be raised which is more than 60 m high. For this to achieve an inclined plane was erected at a place called Sarapallam which is 6.5 km away from the temple. And the huge block was dragged by elephants all the way up to the sikhara.

Unique sculptures of Brihadisvara temple.

As mentioned at the very outset the "Moolavar" or the main deity of Brihadisvara temple is Siva. The deities Dakshinamurthy, Surya and Chandra which are placed in the niches of the outer wall of the temple are of huge size. Brihadisvara temple's uniqueness lies in the sculptures of "Ashta- Dikpalakas" or the custodians of the directions. Having  the sculptures of "Ashta- Dikpalakas" in a shrine is very rare.

The other unique aspect of Brihadisvara temple is that its vimana or Gopuram will not cast a shadow during noon at any part of the year.The sivalingam is a huge structure with a height of 12 feet. The Nandi or the bull that faces the sanctum is also of 12 feet tall. The sculptures of Dwarapalakas or the custodians of the gates of the shrine and the other deities ariund the main shrine are both elegant and awe inspiring. The tower above the sanctum is about 2i6 feet tall. This magnificent tower can be seen from the very otskirts of Thanjavur.

Brihadisvara temple is the first granite structure in the world. When it was completed  in the year 1003, it was the tallest btemple in India. And after completion of 1000 years too, it's still the tallest temple in India.

There are some pillars in the main assembly hall or Mandapa, which produce musical sounds when tapped. It has been designated as the UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE.

Completion of One thousand years

As mentioned earlier, Brihdisvara temple was consecrated in yhe year1010, Brihadisvara temple which is also known with the names Peruvudaiyar kovil, Rajarajeshwara temple and Rajarajeswaram completed 1000 yeras in the year 2010.

To mark the occasion, under the noted dancer Padma Subrahmanyam a Bharatanatyam Yajna was organized by the state government. To mark the grand occasion 1000 dancers from different places of the country and from the US. The dancers danced to the 11 verses of divine music. These verses were composed by Karuvur thevar, Rajaraja's guru.

Brihadisvara Temple : Mixed media. Painting by the author