Brihadisvara Temple: Rajaraja Chola I's Great Temple at Thanjavur

The Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur in southern India was built by the Chola king Rajaraja I and completed in 1010. Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, it was the largest and tallest temple in India of its day, and its granite tower still dominates the city. The temple is both a masterpiece of South Indian architecture and a statement in stone of the wealth and ambition of the Chola empire.

Background: the rise of the Cholas

The Cholas were one of the oldest dynasties of the Tamil country, but their imperial phase began in the ninth century, when Vijayalaya Chola took Thanjavur in about 848 and made it his capital. His successors expanded across the Kaveri River delta, a rich rice-growing region. The dynasty suffered a severe setback at the Battle of Takkolam in 949, when the Rashtrakutas killed the Chola crown prince and occupied the north of the kingdom.

Recovery came under Sundara Chola and especially under his son Arulmozhi Varman, who took the throne in 985 with the title Rajaraja, “king of kings”. Over nearly three decades he turned a regional kingdom into the leading power of South India.

Rajaraja defeated the Chera fleet on the Kerala coast, subdued the Pandyas of Madurai and invaded Sri Lanka, where the old capital of Anuradhapura was sacked and the north of the island was annexed. He fought the Western Chalukyas of the Deccan and extended Chola influence over the Vengi region of Andhra. His fleet also reached the Maldives.

Building the temple

The wealth from these wars, together with the revenue of the fertile delta, paid for the temple. Construction is generally thought to have begun around 1003, and the main work was finished within about seven years. Rajaraja’s own inscription records that on the 275th day of the 25th year of his reign, in 1010, he presented the gilded copper pot (kalasam) that crowns the tower, marking its completion.

The temple was originally called Rajarajeshvaram, “the lord of Rajaraja”, tying the god directly to the king. Today it is popularly known as Periya Kovil, “the Big Temple”, or as Brihadisvara, “the great lord”.

An inscription names the chief architect as Kunjara Mallan Raja Raja Perunthachan. The builders worked mostly in granite, an extremely hard stone that does not occur in the immediate area of Thanjavur and had to be transported from quarries elsewhere. How the heavy blocks were lifted to the top of the tower is not recorded. A long-told local tradition speaks of an earthen ramp several kilometres long, but this cannot be confirmed.

Architecture

The temple stands in a large rectangular courtyard, about 240 by 120 metres, entered through two gateway towers (gopurams) on the east. The main shrine follows the Dravida style of South India.

Its outstanding feature is the vimana, the pyramidal tower over the sanctum. It rises in 13 diminishing storeys to a height of about 66 metres and is crowned by a large dome-shaped stone, the shikhara, topped by the gilded finial. In earlier South Indian temples the tower over the sanctum was usually modest, and the later fashion was for gateway towers that dwarfed the shrine. At Thanjavur the main tower is overwhelmingly dominant, a design that emphasises the god at the centre of the temple and the king who built it.

Inside the sanctum stands a very large stone linga, the abstract emblem of Shiva. Around the sanctum runs a two-storey enclosed passage. On its upper level, carved panels show 81 of the 108 classical dance poses (karanas) described in the ancient treatise on performance, the Natyashastra, and are an important source for the history of Indian dance.

A huge monolithic statue of Nandi, Shiva’s bull, faces the shrine. It is one of the largest of its kind in India, but both the statue and the pavilion that shelters it are generally attributed to the Nayak rulers of Thanjavur in the sixteenth century; the smaller original Chola Nandi now stands elsewhere in the temple grounds.

Paintings and inscriptions

The walls of the passage around the sanctum were decorated with paintings. For centuries the Chola murals were hidden beneath later paintings of the Nayak period. In 1931 the scholar S. K. Govindaswamy identified the earlier Chola layer, which includes scenes of Shiva, dancers and royal figures. These are among the finest surviving Chola paintings.

The temple’s inscriptions are just as valuable. Carved in Tamil, mostly around the base of the main shrine, they record in remarkable detail the gifts made to the temple by the king, his sister Kundavai, his queens, officials and others. They list gold, jewels, bronze images, lands and livestock, including wealth taken in the king’s wars.

The inscriptions also record the temple staff. One lists some 400 women dancers attached to the temple, transferred from other shrines, with their names and the houses allotted to them. Others list musicians, singers, accountants, lamp-lighters, washermen, carpenters and goldsmiths, each paid from temple land. Villages across the Chola realm were assigned to supply the temple with revenue, produce and labour.

What the temple reveals about Chola power

The Brihadisvara Temple was not only a place of worship. It worked as a great economic and administrative institution, owning land, employing hundreds of people and lending money to villages. Through it the king linked his court to communities across the empire.

The temple also expressed royal ideology. By naming the god after himself and recording his conquests and gifts on its walls, Rajaraja presented his rule as sacred and permanent. The scale of the building, unmatched in India at the time, announced that the Cholas were now an imperial power.

The temple’s records reflect a sophisticated state. Rajaraja’s government carried out a land survey to assess revenue, and Chola inscriptions describe village assemblies, such as those at Uttaramerur, that managed local affairs. The temple is perhaps the best single window into how this state worked.

Rajaraja also used the temple to promote the religious culture of the Tamil country. Inscriptions record that he provided for the singing of Tamil hymns to Shiva, the Tevaram, in the temple, and he is traditionally credited with encouraging the collection of these hymns. Bronze images of Shiva as Nataraja, the lord of dance, and of the Tamil saints were given to the temple, and Chola bronze casting reached its finest level in this period.

The king’s family shared in this patronage. His elder sister Kundavai, a powerful figure at court, made many gifts, as did his queens. Their donations, recorded alongside the king’s, show how royal women used religious giving to display status and influence.

The temple also linked the capital to the wider empire. Inscriptions list villages in conquered territories, including Sri Lanka, that were assigned to support it, and name officials from many regions who served the temple.

Legacy

Rajaraja’s son Rajendra I extended the empire further, sending armies to the Ganges and a fleet against Srivijaya in Southeast Asia. He moved the capital to Gangaikonda Cholapuram and built a temple there clearly modelled on his father’s, though somewhat lower.

Thanjavur remained an important city under later rulers, including the Nayaks and the Marathas, who added shrines, walls and the Nandi pavilion. The temple has never ceased to be used for worship. In 1987 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in 2004 the listing was extended as the Great Living Chola Temples, including the Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple and the Airavatesvara temple at Darasuram. In 2010 the Tamil Nadu government celebrated the temple’s thousandth anniversary.

Myths and facts

• Myth: The temple’s shadow never falls on the ground. Fact: The tower casts a shadow like any building; at midday much of it falls on the tower’s own lower stages, which may explain the story.
• Myth: The capstone is a single block weighing exactly 80 tonnes. Fact: The figure of about 80 tonnes is widely repeated but has not been measured, and some studies suggest the crowning dome may be made of more than one piece.
• Myth: The temple was built in a few months. Fact: The work took roughly seven years, from about 1003 to 1010.

By the numbers

Timeline

• c. 848: Vijayalaya Chola takes Thanjavur.
• 985: Rajaraja I becomes king.
• c. 1003: Construction of the temple is thought to begin.
• 1010: Rajaraja presents the gilded finial; the temple is completed.
• 1014: Rajaraja dies and is succeeded by Rajendra I.
• 16th century: Nayak rulers add the Nandi pavilion and other structures.
• 1931: Chola-period murals identified beneath later paintings.
• 1987: The temple becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 2004: Listing extended as the Great Living Chola Temples.
• 2010: Thousandth anniversary of the temple’s completion.

Why it matters

The Brihadisvara Temple is one of the supreme achievements of Indian architecture and a key document of medieval South Indian history. Its stones and inscriptions show how faith, art, economy and royal power were bound together in the Chola state, and the temple has remained a living centre of worship for more than a thousand years.