BY
PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU
(VRS.SOMANCHI)
SRI BRIHADEESWARA TEMPLE,TANJAVUR
TEMPLE HOW GREAT! HOW MAJESTIC!
We were in Srirangam—the most
holy temple town looking like heaven on earth in the deep inner
praharaas—by 11am on 31-7-24. But the allotted time for our visit to the
holy temple was 6am next morning ( 1-8-24). So we proceeded in the
afternoon(31-7-24) to nearby Tanjavur city (distance 65 kilometers)to
visit another world famous temple the Sri Brihadeeswara temple .I am a
first time visitor to this temple of unbelievable sculptural grandeur and it
would have been a blunder if we did not visit it during this trip. It was a two
hour car journey.Tanjavur has a population of 2,30,000 and is a
historically important city, a city linked to the stories of first wars by
British colonialists to establish an empire in India. Brihadeeswara
temple is recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage site.It is from all
angles architectural,artistic and spiritual a most wonderful temple and one of
the greatest temples of India and the world.
The entire area Trichi-Srirangam-Tanjavur is a modern industrialized area. Srirangam temple town (population 1,80,000) is treated as part of Tiruchrapalli city. Thiruchirapalli urban conglomeration has a population of one million . It has an international airport . The National Institute of Technology(NIT) Thiruchirapalli is treated as the top most among the NITs in the country.
We started for Tanjavur at 3pm
and passing nearby some industrial areas and the very attractive
structures of National Institure of Technology(NIT) and vast areas
of coconut plantations we at last reached Sri Bihadeeswara
temple at about 5-30 pm .
For students with
interest in geometry and engineering it looks like a big
engineering wonder of geometric perfection. It was constructed 1000 years
back! The name Brihadeeswara temple means the great Shiva temple of
colossal size. Historians say that its construction started under the great
Chola emperor Raja Raja 1 and was completed in the year 1010 AD . The
colossal sky high temple tower and every inch of the temple is constructed
using a reddish brown colored granite stone. (A few idols just two or
three, also of unbelievable giant size, are created in black granite)Time has
eroded the stones a little but the grandeur and divinity are not a
whit diminished.
There were two or three
smaller “gopurams” (majestic gateways tower of stone with most
beautifull sublime sculptures) and we have to walk through these
gopurams for about 100 meters to reach the magnificient main temple . The
temple is surrounded by a majestic stout protective wall
constructed with big granite blocks in meters dimensions . The extent of the
temple compound is 240 meters x120 meters — (roughly equal to three foot
ball fields!) . The entire temple compound except for a few grassy
patches is paved with long well cut red stone slabs .
The temple tower is 212 feet
high (64 meter) . It is an awe inspiring huge four sided cone of square cross
section (perfectly geometric beautiful cone) and tapers towards the
top. At the very top there is a huge hemispherical dome . As per internet
encyclopedias we learn that the heavy stone dome (full of sculptures ) is
separate piece ,separate from the conic tower and weighs eighty tones! It is an
engineering wonder and feat how the dome could be fixed at such height one
thousand years ago!
The construction of Brihadeeswara
temple ,which looks majestic like an engineering masterpiece of modern
days,proves that the ancient science of temple building is a most advanced
technology with exhaustive knowledge of geometry. The internet
encyclopedias tell that for lifting and fixing the big dome at the top of
the main temple tower, a seven mile long earthen inclined plane was built
! The inclined plane must have been in use for a few years because
numberless stone slabs of meters dimensions were fixed at great
height.The inclined plane itself must have been a wonder and a big landmark for
a few years !
The base of the tower is a huge cube
constructed with huge slabs of same red granite and is full of most artistic
and sublime images of gods. The ancient artist’s conception of art is great.The
main awe inspiring towe full of sculptures lies on huge cube the base of which
is a square of 99 feet side! The four sides of the base as also the
four sides of the sky-high tower upto the cone at the top are full of
beautiful sublime sculptures of Hindu gods.
Now we enter the main temple.The
front entrance portion of the temple is a majestic long covered hall
(”Mukhamantapam”) two hundred feet long. Its length is said to be double the
length of the square base under the main tower. The walls, pillars and also the
ceiling had most artistic divine and sublime sculptures of the gods from
mythology. There are murals created with vegetable colours mixed with lime .
There is a wide flight of about 15 or 20 steps.
Now about the meters thick
impregnable compound wall enclosing the vast temple complex. It is
already mentioned that the total stretch of the temple compound may be equal to
roughly three football fields! On the inner side of the campus there were
several mantapams i.e. long halls with pillars and covered with
slabs and open on one or two sides and full of sculptures of gods. They
were (prayer halls ) or halls for pilgrims to rest when large
religious festivals were held. There also appear to be some temples
between these long mantapams. We saw them only from a long distance .
but I could imagine they were magnificent artistically built structures.
The architects and sculptors of 1000 years back created a heaven in the temple
campus . the artistic brilliance of the temple has not dimmed a little
though the is 1000 year old. The encyclopedias tell us that there was a wide
moat surrounding the heavenly temple complex.
We simply cannot imagine how such
gigantic structures in stone were created. There is a monolithic black stone
“Nandi”(Divine Bull) in a pillared open mantapam which is said to be four
meters high and is be among the largest Nandi sculptures in India. This
pillared mantapam also is decorated with sculptures.
Everywhere there were perfect geometrical
—lines, squares, cubes,cones . It was perfect geometry . It can be
called both an engineering wonder,place of great art and magnificent
spiritual center. A modern engineer or a college student of mathematics
discipline would feel unbounded joy seeing such perfect mathematical
shapes in an ancient temple of 1000 years back .There were grassy
patches here and there but most of the ground in the complex is paved
with huge granite slabs. Everywhere there was sublime art.
A temple guide most patiently
explained all the temple history and the religious mythological facts. After
spending about three hours and paying obeisance to god almighty of
universe Lord Shiva we reached our hotel rooms in Srirangam late by
around 10 pm
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