Ancient India - City of Tanjore - The Big Temple
The Country India:
An ancient country with telling history of several thousands years. A country of Gold, jewels and Gems, this country was invaded by many and the country known as Bharat in olden times, merged several of them into its confluence.
The Greeks, Arabs, English, Dutch and portugese and many of the other invaded this beautiful country, and wondered about its beauty and its natural and intellectual wealth.
The country taught the people of the world, with ancient vedas - a olden day wisdom, a philosophical Geetha and Upanishads and taught the world - 'God is one and we call him under different names'. It taught the world, the Power of Yoga, and the Power of Meditation, Ayurveda, Vedic mathematics and host of others . Also visit cities Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram.
The City of Tanjore is one such Indian Treasure situated in South of India - State of Tamilnadu near to River Cauvery.
What is the meaning of Tanjore?
Hindu mythology refers to a demon with name - Tanjan, who plundered wealth and gave lot of troubles to commoners iiving in Thanjavur and nearby places. With the prayer of people, Sri Anandavalli Amman temple and Lord Vishnu Neelamega perumal killed him. Tanjan's last wish of naming the city after his name was also granted by Sri Anandavalli Amman.
The Big Temple:
The Tanjore Temple called as Raja - Raja - Eswaram otherwise known as Peru-Udai-Yaar temple built between 1003 to 1010 AD.
The Temple was built by Raja Raja Chola - A grand king of Chola dynasty. He kept major regions of South of india under his rule and was a Powerful king of that times.
A 200+ foot height, large temple, was built with Granite stones and lime stone as the binding agent. Even though the temple was built 1000 years before, it is still standing tall, standing testimony to Tamil's architectural and engineering expertise.
The temple is one of the Unesco recognized heritage site and thousands of foreigners and indians visit the temple every year.
The principal deity of the temple is Lord Shiva
(Refer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva)
for additional information and his consort known as Parvathi or Umayal in Tamil.
The deity's name is - Peru-vudai-Yaar and his consort name is - Periya- Nayagi signifying the large size of the statues and their virtues.
Visit the site for additional information http://www.thanjavurtourism.com/big-temple-thanjavur.html
Science behind the Temple:
The Big Temple: The beauty of the Big temple is the tower or stupa on the top of the temple as seen in the picture. The stone is a single stone of Granite weighing 80 tonnes.
In the absence of any modern engineering equipments, how the 80 tonne stone was moved to top of the 66 meter tower, was a great engineering marvel!
There are lots of anecdotes around this. However, they must have used wooden logs and elephants to move the stone upward by constructing a ramp far away from few thousands meters.
The other interesting aspect of the temple is, the shadow of the Gopuram or Tower does not fall on the ground during noon!
History carved in Sculptures:
The Nandi: The well carved Nandi - The Bull god is another beautiful statue at the temple.
The large statue was carved in a single stone. It is in a sitting posture and attrating the attention of thousands of pilgrims every year.
The ancient tamils were very good at engineering, architecture and were using lime and stones to built large temples to represent the culture and civilization of ancient Tamils.
There are several such temples all around the state of Tamilnadu, telling stories beyond the time immemorial.
Chola Dynasty:
Raja Raja Chola - The Big temple was constructed by the king Raja-Raja- Chola of Chola dynasty.
He ruled the Chola kingdom from 985 AD to 1014 AD. He was a benevolent king and he controlled most of the southern states.
Apart from most of the indian territories, he also ruled Srilanka, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and most of the East asian countries.
He constructed the large temple in praise of his God - Lord Shiva and used that as a social experiment to develop arts, music, architecture and as a cultural centre.
Tamils used Temples as the centre of society and culture. Temples were also used as the centre for distribution of wealth, promote craftsmenship and other metallic sciences.
Some Shopping - Who encouraged the art of drama at Thanjavur?
King Raja Raja Chola promoted arts and artisanship in Thanjavur. There were several artisans living in and around the temple and the streets were named after their communities. The king not only developed the temple out of his devotion to Lord Shiva but, also wanted to promoted it as a social experiment to integrate communities and make it as part of shared living and prosperity of communities.
Raja Raja Chola also promoted dramas such as Rajarajeswara natakam and Rajarajavijayam during festival days in the temples. King Saraboji also promoted many such arts and artisanship during his days.
Tanjore Art Souvenir
Tanjore Dancing Dolls
Tanjore carved plates
Places near Tanjore, A Place to Visit:
The pictures below represent the temple constructed at Gangai-Konda- Cholapuram, which was made as administrative capital of Cholas. King Rajendra Chola ruled the dynasty from 1014 to 1044 AD. He built the temple on similar lines, at his father's footsteps.
Gangai Konda Chola-Puram - Nandi statue
Gangai - Konda - Cholapuram Temple