BRIHADEESWARA ALAYAM temple,architecture wonder,

                        

                          

 The Brhadisvara Temple, a splendid example of Chola design was engineered by Emperor Rajaraja (985-1012 A.D.). The long series of epigraphs incised in elegant letters on the support all around the mammoth structure reveals the temperament of the Emperor.

The Brhadisvara temple could be a monument dedicated to Hindu deity, and he named lord as Rajarajesvaram-udayar when himself. The temple is built of granite, largely of enormous blocks, a rock that's not on the market within the neighbourhood and had thus to be brought from a distance. The temple is at intervals a spacious inner prakara of 240.90 m long (east-west) and 122m broad (north-south), with a gopura at the east and 3 different normal torana entrances one at every lateral sides and therefore the third at rear. The prakara is encircled by a double-storeyed malika with parivaralayas.

The sikhara, a cupola dome, is polygonal shape and rests on one block of granite, a sq. of seven.8 m consideration eight0 tons. The majestic papitha and adhisthana ar common to any or all the axially placed entities just like the ardhamaha and mukha-mandapas and coupled to the most sanctum however approached through a north-south construction across the ardha-mandapa that is marked by lofty sopanas. The moulded support is extensively carved  with inscriptions by its royal builder UN agency refers to his several endowments, pious acts and organisational events connected to the temple. The brihad-linga at intervals the sanctum is eight.7 m high. Life-size iconographic representations on the wall niches and inner passage embrace Durga, Lakshmi, Hindu deity and Bhikshatana, Virabhadra Kalantaka, Natesa, Ardhanarishvara and Alingana kinds of Hindu deity. The mural paintings on the walls of the lower ambulant within ar finest samples of Chola and later periods.

Fine arts were inspired within the service of the temple; the sculptures, the paintings within the encompassing passages of the sanctorum and even the inscriptions in elegant Chola Grantha and Tamil letters offer a thought of the nice art that flourished beneath Rajaraja.

Serfoji, an area Mahratta ruler, remodeled the Ganesha shrine. The celebrated Thanjavur faculty of paintings of the Nayakas ar mostly superimposed over the Chola murals.

LOCATION

Thanjavur at one time Tanjore, could be a town within the Indian state of Madras.OR Tamil Nadu Thanjavur is a crucial center of South Indian faith, art, and design. Most of the nice Living Chola Temples, that square measure UNESCO World Heritage Monuments, square measure situated in and around Thanjavur. The foremost among these, the Brihadeeswara Temple, is found within the centre of the town. Thanjavur is additionally home to Tanjore painting, a painting vogue distinctive to the region.

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE

• 10.47.00 North latitude.
•  79.8.10 East longitude

 MSL ( MEAN SEA LEVEL)

The elevation or mean sea level of thanjavur  88  meters (or)  289 ft above sea level

CLIMATE

The period from Gregorian calendar nov month to Feb in Thanjavur is pleasant, with a climate filled with heat days and funky nights. The onset of summer is from March, with the mercury reaching its peak by the top of might and June. the typical temperatures vary from eighty one °F (27 °C) in Gregorian calendar month to ninety seven °F (36 °C) in might and June. Summer rains ar thin and also the initial monsoon, the South-West monsoon, commences in June and continues until Sep. North-East monsoon begins Oct and continues until Gregorian calendar month. The downfall throughout the South-West monsoon amount is way below that of the North-East monsoon. The North-East monsoon is useful to the district at massive owing to the serious downfall and also the Western ghats (mountain ranges) feeding the watercourse Cauvery. the typical downfall is thirty seven inches (940 mm), most of that is contributed by the North-East monsoon.

LOCAL LANGUAGE

• TAMIL

Best time to visit

• NOVEMBER TO FEBRUARY

Mobile Network availability in

 BRUHADISHWARALAYAM 

• Bsnl
• Airtel
• Jio
• Idea
• VodaFONE

BRUHADISHWARALAYAM is famous for

Thanjavur is a crucial center of South Indian faith, art, and design. Most of the good Living Chola Temples, that square measure United Nations agency World Heritage Monuments, square measure settled in and around Thanjavur. The foremost among these, the Brihadeeswara Temple, is found within the centre of the town.

The temple has a massive colonnaded prakara (corridor) and one of the largest Shiva lingas in India. It is also famed for the quality of its sculpture, as well as being the location that commissioned the brass Nataraja – Shiva as the lord of dance, in 11th century.

BRUHADISHWARALAM Opening Days and Entry fee

• All days of the week Temple open
• 6:00 AM - 12:30 PM
• 4:00 PM - 8:30 PM

ABOUT TEMPLE

Brihadishwara temple, additionally referred to as Rajarajeswaram or Peruvudaiyār Kōvil, may be a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva set in South bank of Kaveri watercourse in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. it's one amongst the most important South Indian temples ANd an exemplary example of a totally accomplished Tamil design. it's referred to as as Dakshina Meru (Meru of south) engineered by Tamil king Raja Raja Chola I between 1003 and 1010 AD, the temple may be a a part of the United Nations agency World Heritage web site called the "Great Living Chola Temples", alongside the Chola kinfolk era Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple and Airavatesvara temple that ar concerning seventy kilometres (43 mi) and forty kilometres (25 mi) to its northeast severally.

The original monuments of this eleventh century temple were engineered around a fosse. It enclosed gopura, the most temple, its huge tower, inscriptions, frescoes and sculptures preponderantly associated with Shaivism, however additionally of Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism. The temple was broken in its history and a few design is currently missing. extra mandapam and monuments were side in centuries that followed. The temple currently stands amidst fortified walls that were side once the sixteenth century.

Built out of granite, the vimana tower on top of the sanctum is one amongst the tallest in South India It was, altogether probability, one amongst the tallest structures within the world at the time of its construction. The temple incorporates a huge columned prakara (corridor) and one amongst the most important Shiva lingas in India.it's additionally famous for the standard of its sculpture, likewise as being the placement that commissioned the brass Nataraja – Shiva because the lord of dance, in eleventh century. The complicated includes shrines for Nandi, Parvati, Kartikeya, Ganesha, Sabhapati, Dakshinamurti, Chandeshwar, Varahi et al.. The temple is one amongst the foremost visited traveller attractions in Madras

Nomenclature

Rajaraja Chola, WHO commissioned the temple, referred to as it Rajarajeswaram (Rajarājeśwaram), virtually "the temple of the god of Rajaraja".A later inscription within the Brihannayaki shrine calls the temple's supernatural being Periya Udaiya Nayanar, that seems to be the supply of the fashionable names Brihadisvara and Peruvudaiyar Kovil.

Brihadishwara (IAST: Bṛihádīśvara) may be a Indic composite word composed of Brihat which implies "big, great, lofty, vast",and Ishvara means that "lord, Shiva, supernatural being, supreme atman (soul)".The name means that the "great lord, big Shiva" 

TempleHistory

Statue of Rajaraja Chola I WHO engineered the temple over 1003-1010 metal.

A spectrum of Hindu temple designs continued  to develop from the fifth to the ninth century over the Chalukya era rule as proven in Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal, and so with the Pallava era as witnessed at Mamallapuram and different monuments. Thereafter, between 850 and 1280 metal, Cholas emerged because the dominant sept. the first Chola amount saw a bigger stress on securing their politics boundaries and fewer stress on design. within the tenth century, inside the Chola empire emerged options like the varied columns with sticking out sq. capitals. This, states Saint George Michell, signaled the beginning of the new Chola vogue. This South Indian vogue is most totally realised each in scale and detail within the Brihadeshwara temple engineered between 1003 and 1010 by the Chola king Rajaraja I.

Additions, renovations and repairs

The main temple beside its gopurams area unit from the first eleventh century. The temple additionally saw additions, renovations, and repairs over future one,000 years. The raids and wars, significantly between Muslim Sultans WHO controlled Madurai and Hindu kings WHO controlled Thanjavur caused injury. These were repaired by Hindu dynasties that regained management. In some cases, the rulers tried to renovate the temple with pale paintings, by ordering new murals on high of the older ones. In different cases, they sponsored addition of shrines. the many shrines of Hindu deity (Murugan), Annapurna (Amman) and Nandi area unit from the sixteenth and 17th-century Nayaka era.Similarly the Dakshinamurti shrine was engineered later.

Architecture

• The Brihadeshwara temple arrange and development utilizes the axial and symmetrical pure mathematics rules it's classified as Perunkoil (also known as Madakkoil), an enormous temple designed on the next platform of a natural or artificial  mounds.The temple advanced could be a parallelogram that's nearly 2 stacked squares, covering 240.79 metres (790.0 ft) east to west, and 121.92 metres (400.0 ft) north to south. 
• During this area area unit 5 main sections: the sanctum with the high structure (sri vimana), the Nandi hall ahead (Nandi-mandapam) and in between these the most community hall (mukha mandapam), the good gathering hall (maha mandapam) and also the collapsible shelter that connects the good hall with the sanctum (artha mandapam).
• The temple advanced integrates an oversized columned and coated porch (prakara) in its spacious grounds, with a fringe of regarding 450 metres (1,480 ft) for circumambulation. Outside this columned porch there area unit 2 walls of enclosure, the outer one being defensive associated more in 1777 Ce by the French colonial forces with gun-holes with the temple serving as an arsenal. They created the outer wall high, analytic  the temple advanced space. 
• On its east finish is that the original main gopuram or entranceway that's barrel domed. it's but 0.5 the dimensions of the most temple's vimana. extra structures were more to the initial temple once the eleventh century, like a mandapa in its northeast corner and extra gopurams (gateways) on its perimeters to permit folks to enter and leave from multiple locations a number of the shrines and structures were more throughout the Pandya, Nayaka, Vijayanagara and Indian era, before the colonial era started, and these builders revered the initial plans and symmetry rules. within the initial temple grounds, beside the most sanctum and Nandi-mandapam area unit 2 major shrines, one for Hindu deity and for Parvati. The advanced has extra smaller shrines.
• The Brihadisvara temple continued  the Hindu temple traditions of South Asian nation by adopting subject area and ornamental components, however its scale considerably exceeded the temples created before the eleventh century. 
• The Chola era architects and artisans innovated the experience to rescale and build, significantly with significant stone and to accomplish the sixty three.4 metres (208 ft) high high vimana
• Nandi mandapam and also the entrance gopurams, northeast read from grounds.
• The temple faces east, and once had a water fosse around it. This has been stuffed up. The fortified wall currently runs around this fosse. the 2 walls have ornate gateways known as the gopurams. These area unit made up of stone and show structure. 
• The most gateways area unit on the side. the primary one is termed the Keralantakan tiruvasal, which suggests the "sacred gate of the Keralantakan". The word Keralantakan was the name of king Rajaraja UN agency designed it. a couple of one hundred metres (330 ft) ahead is that the inner grounds gopuram known as the Rajarajan tiruvasal. this is often a lot of embellished than the Keralantakan tiruvasal, like with its adhishtanam relief work narrating scenes from the Puranas and alternative 
• Hindu texts. The inner jap gopuram ends up in a massive grounds, within which the shrines area unit all signed to east-west and north-west cardinal directions. The advanced are often entered either on one axis through a five-story gopuram or with a second access on to the massive main quadrangle through a smaller free-standing gopuram. The gopuram of the most entrance is thirty m high, smaller than the vimana.
• The main temple-related monuments and also the nice tower is within the middle of this grounds. round the main temple that's dedicated to Shiva, area unit smaller shrines, most of that area unit aligned axially. These area unit dedicated to his consort Parvati, his sons Subramanya and Ganesha, Nandi, Varahi, Karuvur deva (the guru of Rajaraja Chola), Chandeshwar and Nataraja. The Nandi mandapam includes a monolithic sitting bull facing the sanctum. In between them area unit stairs resulting in a columnar structure and community gathering hall, then associate inner mandapa connecting to the pradakshina patha, or circumambulation path. The Nandi (bull) facing the mukh-mandapam weighs regarding twenty five tonnes. it's fabricated from one stone and is regarding two m tall, half-dozen m long and a pair of.5 m in breadth. The image of Nandi could be a monolithic one and is one in all the biggest within the country.

MANDAPAS  IN TEMPLE

The two mandapa, specifically maha-mandapa and mukha-mandapa, square measure sq. arrange structures axially aligned between the sanctum and therefore the Nandi mandapa. The maha-mandapa has six pillars on both sides.This too has design. The Vitankar and Rajaraja I bronze square measure here, however these were another a lot of later. The maha-mandapa is flanked by 2 big stone dwarapala. it's coupled to the mukha-mandapa by stairs. the doorway of the mukha-mandapa additionally has dwarapala. With the mandapa square measure eight little shrines for dikpalas, or guardian deities of every direction like Hindu deity, Indra, Varuna, Kubera et al.. These were put in throughout the rule of Chola king Rajendra I.

Inscriptions indicate that this space additionally had different ikon from major Hindu traditions throughout the Chola era, however these square measure currently missing. the first eight shrines enclosed those for Surya (the sun god), Saptamatrikas (seven mothers), Ganesha, Kartikeya, Jyeshtha, Chandra (the moon god), Chandeshvara and Bhairava.equally, within the western wall cella was a vast granite Ganapati engineered throughout Rajaraja I era, however United Nations agency is currently found within the tiruch-churru-maligai (southern veranda). Of the Shaktism tradition's seven mothers, solely Varahi survives in a very broken type. Her remnants square measure currently found in a very little epoch brick "Varahi shrine" within the southern aspect of the curtilage. the first version of the others at the side of their original Chola shrines square measure missing.

Murals

Nayaka kinfolk ceiling mural within the Nandi shrine.

The temple has Associate in Nursing beneath layer of Chola frescoes on the sanctum walls on the circumambulatory pathway. These frescoes that cowl floor to ceiling, were discovered in 1931 by S. K. Govindasami of the Annamalai University. The painters used natural pigments and infused it into the wet stone layer because it was setting in. The Chola frescoes were mostly of Shaivism themes. These were repaired within the 2000s.the full Chola fresco space is concerning 670 sq. metres (7,200 sq ft), of that concerning 112 sq. metres (1,210 sq ft) had been uncovered as of 2010 in a very technique that preserves each paintings, a way developed by archeological Survey of Republic of India. The frescoes narrate Hindu mythology. in keeping with Balasubrahmanyam, most frescoes square measure associated with Shiva, however the eleventh century Chola frescoes additionally show Hindu deity, Durga et al., moreover as scenes of Chola royalty, formal and customary life.

Murals within the ceiling of Nandi mandapa, Brihadeeswara temple

The later constructions, additions and modifications to the temple curtailed the quantity of natural light-weight within the temple. The frescoes were therefore photographed in a very restricted manner and taken. in keeping with Sriraman, an entire imaging with higher equipment suggests that these historic interpretations were incorrect. for instance, a fresco that was antecedently taken as Dakshinamurti Shiva is truly a profane scene of a royal guru meditating beneath a banyan. On the tree square measure shown peacocks, birds, monkeys, squirrels and owls, and a elapid. The animals and birds square measure shown as disturbed of the elapid, the one's nearer to the snake square measure shown to be additional disturbed.different components of the panel equally show a court paying attention to a saint. different show girls in several dresses in several dance gesture

Some of the paintings within the sanctum sanctorum and therefore the walls within the passage had been broken as a result of the soot that had deposited on them once upon a time. due to the continual exposure to smoke and soot from the lamps and burning of natural resin within the sanctum sanctorum over a amount of centuries bound components of the Chola paintings on the circumambulatory passage walls had been badly broken The archeological Survey of Republic of India, for the primary time within the world, used its distinctive de-stucco method to revive sixteen Nayak paintings, that were superimposed on 1000-year-old Chola frescoes.These 400-year-old paintings are mounted on fibre glass boards, displayed at a separate tent.

Millennium commemoration

1,000-year-old Thanjavur Brihadeeshwara Temple - read at sunrise.

Dancers gathered at Brihadishwara Temple to commemorate it.

Built in the year 1010 Ce by Raja Raja Chola in Thanjavur, the temple is popularly referred to as the massive Temple. It turned one thousand years previous in Gregorian calendar month 2010. To celebrate the a thousandth year of the grand structure, the authorities and therefore the city command several cultural events. it had been to recall the 275th day of his twenty fifth royal year (1010 CE) once Raja Raja Chola (985–1014 CE) bimanual over a gold-plated kalasam (copper pot or finial) for the ultimate consecration to crown the vimana, the 59.82-metre tall tower higher than the sanctum.

Reception

The temple "testifies the sensible achievements of the Chola in design, sculpture, painting and bronze casting."[The temple finds mention in several of the up to date works of the amount like Muvar Ula and Kalingathuparani. per Chatterjee, the Dravidian design earned its supreme sort of expression within the temple and it successor, the Brihadeeswarar Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram.The temple has been declared as a heritage monument by the govt of India|Bharat|Asian country|Asian nation} and administered by the archeological Survey of India as a protected monument. The temple is one amongst the foremost visited traveler attractions in Tamil Nadu.

The temple was declared as a World Heritage website by UNESCO, together with the Brihadeeswara Temple at Gangaikondacholapuram and Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram that area unit referred because the nice Living Chola Temples. These 3 temples have similarities, however every has distinctive style and sculptural components. All of the 3 temples were engineered by the Cholas between the tenth and twelfth centuries Ce and that they have continuing to be supported and utilized by Hindus. The temples area unit classified as "Great Living" because the temples area unit active in cultural, pilgrim's journey and worship practises in nowadays.

Cultural events

Temple pageant procession, 2015

The Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur is that the website of annual dance festivals around February, round the Mahashivratri. Major classical Indian dance type artists, moreover as regional groups, perform their repertoire at this Brahan Natyanjali pageant over ten days.

Car pageant

The Temple automotive was unrolled on its trial from opposite to Sri Ramar temple on twenty April 2015 witnessed by an outsized range of individuals. 9 days later, the maiden procession of the temple automotive was command. This was the primary such procession during this temple command within the past hundred years, per news reports.

HOW TO REACH

Thanjavur is found within the fertile Cauvery delta in state. it's socially connected by air, road and rail to any or all major cities like Madras and city. Here is the way to reach Thanjavur.

BY AIR

The nearest landing field is at Trichy, concerning fifty five klick from Thanjavur. The landing field is well connected by flights to Indian still international cities. From the landing field, taxi services square measure accessible for Thanjavur.

BY TRAIN

The nearest major railhead is additionally at Trichy. Trichy Junction is a crucial railroad station on the Thiruvananthapuram–Chennai route. Trains from Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Rameswaram, Varanasi, Mysore, Tirupati, etc. halt at the station. From the station, one will rent a taxi for Thanjavur.

BY ROAD

Thanjavur is well connected by road to alternative cities of state. Buses ply often from Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Madras and alternative cities of state. non-public buses ply often from Bangalore too

need any information contact adm wondersindia@gmail.com

updates