Super Squ , the cute Malabar Squirrel is in Tamil Nadu and she hears many amazing stories about the Brihadiswara temple. She has captures some in here mini poster booklet. But there are some more cool facts that she has written down in her own personal notes
The Brihadeshwara Temple was built about 1000 years ago by the great chola king Raja Raja Chola 1 in 1010 AD
It is located in Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. ( See it on the map here). It was known as the Periya Kovil or RajaRajeshwara temple. The Marathas named it Brihadeeshwara or the Great Ishwara.
The temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Great Living Chola Temples". Along with Brihadeeswarar Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Airavatesvara temple are part of this site.
Raja Raj Chola 1 is supposed to have had a dream in one of his trips to Sri Lanka about a grand temple. It is said that he stayed true to the dream vision when creating this masterpiece.
The main temple is built entirely of granite. More than 130,000 tones of granite was used to build the Brihasihwara temple. What is surprising is that there are no granite quarries in a 100 km suare radius. But, Raja Raja insisted on using granite only. Imagine the effort it would have taken to transport this! We are talking about a millennium ago and not today. This goes to show that the cholas were very advanced in terms of the transportation and trade networks
There is a Nandi at the entrance of the temple and that is almost 200 feet tall and carved from a single stone
There are depictions of Nartakis or Dancers . Bharatnatyam has 108 Karanas (movements). 81 one of these 108 are depicted on the temple walls.
There are many inscriptions on the temple. These inscriptions call out Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan as the chief architect of the temple. These inscriptions also have detailed descriptions of the jewelry worn at that time. Diamond, pearl and gold jewelry is mentioned in specific detail
Super Squ cant believe her luck that she could visit such a lovely historic place. She has also drawn the temple on her map.
Tags - Malabar Squirrel, Tamil Nadu, Great Living Chola Temples, Brihadeeswarar Temple, Gangaikonda Cholapuram, Airavatesvara temple, UNESCO World Heritage, Dancers
