The Tanjore Trip – 1

Brihadeeswarar Temple, Thanjavur

UNESCO called them the Living Chola Temples. I like that word ‘living’. They are that – the three Shiva temples built by the Greater Cholas between 10^th and 13^th centuries in Thanjavur, Gangaikondacholapuram and Darasuram.

When Tara and I decided to do a small weekend holiday trip down south, her choice was Kanya Kumari and mine was Thanjavur. I vetoed Kanyakumari because this was that time of the year – the tsunami time - and the horrendous memories haven’t faded. So we grabbed some clothes and took a bus to Thanjavur just one day before Sani Peyarchi.

Our first stop was the Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur, the earliest and admittedly the grandest of the Chola temples.

The Brihadeeswarar Temple was built by Raja Raja Chola, the greatest of the Cholas, in the beginning of the 11^th century.

The taxi wound its way through the narrow dusty streets of the small town of Thanjavur and suddenly the temple loomed in front of us, its vimanam towering majestically over us. All shimmering in fiery dusty red-brown, the first glimpse of the temple blew our breath away. 

Three successive vaasals or entrances with vimanas [or gopurams] built at different times in the history of the temple took us inside the complex but it was a good fifteen minutes before we actually entered, because each vaasal with its many-tiered vimana crowded with figurines big and small held us rooted and spell-bound.

In just five minutes Tara and I knew we had chosen the right place to holiday in.

The first entrance is called the Maratha entrance and was the latest to be built. The second one is called the Keralantaka vaasal and is said to commemorate Raja Raja’s victories in war against his Chera counterparts. The third one is called the Raja Raja vaasal and once you enter through its towering archway, you are inside the complex and right in front of you is the huge Nandi presenting his ample back to you!

the Maratha entrance - the first entrance

looking through the three vaasals or entrances

a closer look at the vimanam of the first entrance

the third entrance - the Raja Raja Vaasal - opens out into the Nandi Mandapam 

Tara and Nandi showing their backs to each other!

We are still at the entrance - the inner wall of the Raja Raja vaasal

                             We are still at the entrance - the inner wall of the Raja Raja vaasal

The linga in the garbha graham is so huge he can be seen far away from the very entrance of the main mandapam which is quite some distance from the sanctum. Shiva’s consort Goddess Brihannayaki also carved in granite has a shrine to the left of her lord. She is also queen-size and on the day we saw her, she was gracefully clad in a deep dark red nine-yards that set off the polished granite texture very nicely.  

The gods are plain and undistinguished, but for their size, but the temple was a study in contrast. Almost every inch of the temple walls is ornately carved, and graceful figurines beckon us from every niche.

One of the outer walls has hundreds of figurines of dancing girls in various karanas or mudras and it is believed that the dying bharata natya shastra was reconstructed by the early dance gurus like Padma Subramanian and Rukmini Devi Arundale from the sculptures in Thanjavur and Chidambaram.

The main gopuram is 50 m high and consists of thirteen tiers crowded with graceful figurines. It is said that the kumbham at the top has been so designed that at no time of the day will its shadow fall on the ground.

Our first view of the maha mandapam and the kovil gopuram had us in raptures.

Every wall of the main mandapa is intricately carved: there were not only gods and goddesses but entire stories from mythology sculpted in panel after panel, rock after rock. From larger-than-life-size dwarapalas to less than one foot high panels running all around the walls.

 ...and the gopuram once more!

This duct is where the abhishekam water and milk drain out of the garbha griham and collect in a trough beneath the duct. Narrow channels from the trough conduct the water out of the temple complex. Note the dwarf-like figure bearing the duct on his head.

Nandi who is a huge block of granite is ensconced in a lofty mandapam and faces the main mandapam which leads to the garbha graham. 

two bulls together - Nandi and Tara the taurean

Just behind the main mandapam are smaller shrines to Ganapathy and the royal priest, Karuvar Devar and Subramanya. To the immediate left of the main mandapam is the Chandikesvara shrine and towards the entrance of the main mandapam and to its left is the shrine of Brihannayaki or Periyanayaki.


                                                   
                                      a view of the temple gopuram from behind the Chandikesvara shrine  

The Subramanya shrine is a later addition, built by the Nayaka rulers in 12^th-13^th centuries. The style of the sculptures in this shrine is distinctly different from the rest of the complex in its choice of motifs, in the lines and curves of figurines.

a pillar in the Subrahmanya shrine

a pillar in the Subrahmanya shrine

The ceiling of the Brihannayaki temple is painted over with stories from mythology in the distinctly Tanjore style.

All around the temple complex marking the boundary of the temple run long continuous corridors that were once two-storeyed. It is now a single-storeyed corridor, a part of which has been converted into a museum where artefacts with explanatory plaques introduce us to different dimensions of Chola art. 

Here also are the Chola wall paintings that once adorned the walls of the long temple corridors, whose vivid reds and blues and greens stand out even today, in spite of ravages, natural and man-made, that they had to suffer in the thousand years of their existence. The style of these paintings is not so much Tanjore as we know it today – at least that was what I thought. I would say there is a strong resemblance to the style of the Ajanta paintings.

The corridor and temple walls have inscriptions in Tamil dating back to Raja Raja’s times. There are some Marathi inscriptions too obviously belonging to a later period.

The museum, an explanatory map at the entrance, and a touch screen kiosk with video shows, as also cleanly maintained green lawns are courtesy UNESCO and Archeological Survey of India.

Although we visited the temple on Sani Peyarchi, there was no crowd in the temple except for tourists like us, who had come more out of curiosity than out of piety.  Which really led me to wonder if the Thanjavur temple had ever been on the pilgrim’s itinerary. Perhaps it was always known more for the aesthetic experience it delivered than as a seat of worship.