Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

The Brihadisvara Temple in the town of Thanjavur was one of the most impressive monuments we encountered on our recent trip through Southern India. It has UNESCO World Heritage status (under the label of the ‘Great Living Chola Temples’ of Tamil Nadu).

Thanjavur is also often referred to as Tanjore and it turns out that the local moniker for its temple simply means ‘Big Temple’—which is also what it says in English on the sign just outside.

It is certainly an appropriate description: the temple is huge, as the plan below illustrates.

You pass through three lavishly adorned entrance gates before you reach the central parts of the complex.

The main temple has an impressive height of over 60m and measures some 240m in length.  It was once surrounded by a moat, which has been replaced by the fortified walls you can see in the photo below.

The temple was built by King Rajaraja I during the peak period of the Chola Empire and was inaugurated in the year 1010, i.e. it is well over 1000 years old.

The pyramidal tower has 16 tiers. Each is richly decorated with intricate carvings. On one side we came across this intriguing depiction of what looks like a man with a strange hat.

Our guide told us that it was a carving of Marco Polo. Whilst I have seen images of Marco Polo which are vaguely similar and there is evidence that he did indeed visit this area on one of his journeys, the timeline is clearly out by almost 300 years. That said, the temple underwent various refurbishments over the centuries and this carving may well have been added at a later point in time. Quite why it should depict a European adventurer is another question, though.

Carvings of elephants feature prominently all over the Brihadisvara complex.

There are also many quite well-preserved murals in various parts of the complex. Some are clearly not nearly as old as the temple itself. I believe the one below shows the ruler of Thanjavur in the late 17th century.

There are, however, much older ones, too. Many of these apparently were restored during the 16th century, which explains their good condition. Here is one of them:

It illustrates the ‘Legend of Gundodhara’, about a bodyguard who suffered insatiable hunger after a spell was put on him.

The final shot shows parts of a ceremonial copper flag pole (Dhvaja Stamba) outside the ‘Nandi Mandapam’. ‘Nandi’ means ‘bull’ and this shrine, in common with those at many other old Hindu temples, contains a large monolithic statue of the animal.

To do it justice you need to spend at least a couple of hours here. There is plenty to see, but a local guide is essential if you want to gain more than a superficial understanding of what you are looking at.