<< Text Pages >> Sri brahadeeswara temple - Ancient Temple in India
Submitted by motist on Wednesday, 14 February 2007 Page Views: 7738
Multi-periodSite Name: Sri brahadeeswara templeCountry: India
NOTE: This site is 11.367 km away from the location you searched for.
Type: Ancient Temple
Latitude: 10.782843N Longitude: 79.132356E
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
Internal Links:
External Links:
Ancient Temple in India
Sri Brihadeeswara temple,Thanjavur,Tamil Nadu
One of the most spectacular piece of South Indian architecture . The 'Vimana' (the central tower of the temple) is visible from quite a distance away.
The inscriptions show that the constraction of the temple took 6 years to complete, and King Raja Raja Chola - I, performed the Kumbhabhishekam (consecration ceremony) in 1011 AD. The temple was built in honour of his victorious reign, during when the Chola kingdom (10th to 14th centuries AD) extended till Ceylon and some parts of the Malaya archipelago. The western and the northern ends have a long corridor with 108 Shiva Lingams arranged along the inner side of the corridor. The walls are decorated with paintings of the 64 divine 'lilas' (plays) of Lord Shiva.
The central attraction is the great Vimana built over the sanctum, which is 216 feet high. It has 14 storeys of intricate sculpting with pilasters and niches, and images of lord Shiva.
The Nandhi (the divine vehicle of Lord Shiva) is a monolith measuring 12 feet in height, 19.5 feet in length and 18.25 feet in width, it weighs about 25 tons. The Nandi is seated in an ornately sculpted mandapam called the Nayak Mandapam. According to local legend, the Nandhi was growing in size and people fearing that it might grow out of the mandapam, stuck a nail at its back and since then the growth has ceased. Also it houses many other sub shrines, which are later additions to the great complex.
Some pillars in this corridor have carvings of Maratha rulers in them. The shrine of Goddess Sri Brihannayagi was built by a later Pandya King in the 13th century. The shrine of Lord Ganesha is said to belong to the time of King Sarfoji II, the legendary Maratha King. This temple has Ganesha statues in seven poses. The Nataraja shrine, and Saint Karuvurar's Shrine was built in honour of the Saint Karuvar who helped Raja Raja Chola consecrate the Mahalinga.
An interesting note is the central stone of the Vimana, which weighed 235 lbs (plus 35 lbs of gold plating on it) and was carried to the top by a scaffold built especially for this purpose, which was 4 miles long.
Another striking feature about the temple apart from the blown out size of almost anything here, are the colours. The fresco painting can be seen in the ceilings of the corridors and also in the ceilings of the many sub-shrines. They are an invention of the Cholas and the painting, which are about 1000 years old are still brightly colourful.
You may be viewing yesterday's version of this page. To see the most up to date information please register for a free account.
Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.
Nearby Images from Flickr
The above images may not be of the site on this page, but were taken nearby. They are loaded from Flickr so please click on them for image credits.
Click here to see more info for this site
Nearby sites
Click here to view sites on an interactive map of the areaKey: Red: member's photo, Blue: 3rd party photo, Yellow: other image, Green: no photo - please go there and take one, Grey: site destroyed
Download sites to:
KML (Google Earth)
GPX (GPS waypoints)
CSV (Garmin/Navman)
CSV (Excel)
To unlock full downloads you need to sign up as a Contributory Member. Otherwise downloads are limited to 50 sites.
Turn off the page maps and other distractions
Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
nankm 0° Sri Brihadeeswara temple* Ancient Temple
33.0km NE 53° kumbakonam temples* Ancient Temple
47.9km W 276° Rock Fort temple* Ancient Temple
49.1km W 280° Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple (Tiruchirapalli)* Ancient Temple
49.2km SW 231° Ammachatram* Barrow Cemetery
50.3km SW 233° Narthamalai temples* Ancient Temple
50.9km SW 233° Vijayalaiaieswar temple* Ancient Temple
52.5km N 8° Rajendrapattinam, Shiva temple* Ancient Temple
58.9km SW 230° Sithannavasal* Barrow Cemetery
65.8km SW 232° Kudminatha Temple* Ancient Temple
66.9km N 5° Aratturai, Aratturai Natha (Shiva) temple* Ancient Temple
68.9km N 359° Shri Vaidhyanathasvami Temple* Ancient Temple
69.9km N 10° Shri Sudarkozhundeesar temple of Pennadam* Ancient Temple
75.1km NNE 23° Srimushnam, Bhuvaraha-Vishnu and Shiva temple* Ancient Temple
91.9km NE 42° Chidambaram Natarаja temple* Ancient Temple
101.4km NE 43° Killai Ancient Temple
107.1km NNE 24° Urn Burials in Marungur Burial Chamber or Dolmen
133.1km N 5° Kollur Burial Chamber or Dolmen
146.6km SW 229° Sri Meenakshi Devi temple* Ancient Temple
149.7km SE 140° Kandarodai ancient settlement* Ancient Village or Settlement
156.3km SE 143° Jaffna Ancient settlements Ancient Village or Settlement
160.9km N 357° Sambandhanur burial site Burial Chamber or Dolmen
167.4km S 173° Rameswaram* Ancient Temple
172.1km WSW 237° Puthurmalai Rock Art
175.0km WNW 295° Shri Sangameshvara temple, Bhavani, Tamil Nadu* Ancient Temple
View more nearby sites and additional images