1. The Peruvudaiyar Kovil, also known as Brihadeeshwara, temple
RajaRajeswaraTemple and RajaRajeswaram, at Thanjavur in the Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and an
art of the work achieved by Cholas in Tamil architecture. The
temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Great Living
Chola Temples."
2. The temple had its foundations laid out by the Tamil emperor
Arulmozhivarman, popularly called Rajaraja Chola I, in 1002 AD, as
the first of the great Tamil Chola building projects. It was built
to grace the throne of the Chola empire in compliance of a command
given to him in his dream. 3. Raja Raja Chola was constantly
engaged in battle with Chalukyas in the north, Pandyas in the South
and Sinhalese across the shore. One day while he was engaging in
the battle in Sri Lanka, he saw huge statues of Buddha. He was
inspired by this beautiful statue to dedicate the Brideshwar Temple
to his family deity Shiva at Thanjavur. He commissioned the
construction of the huge temple in 1004 AD. Since the scale of
construction was unparalleled in the history of temple
construction, it took almost 3 decades and it was completed by his
Son Rajendra Chola in 4. The entire temple is built with granite
which was not available in the area. Probably it was transported
from Trichy Rockfort area which is located 40 kms away. The
inspiration to create the magnificient edifice seems to have been
inspired by the Chalukyan architecture. The gurus advice to atone
for the sins in the form of bloodshed of his rivals to the throne,
by building an edifice to Lord Shiva. It is alleged that more
stones than the pyramid of Giza was transported to build this
magnificient edifice dedicated to Lord Shiva. 5. Shadow Disappears
: The most interesting part of this temple is the shadow of the
temple, which surprisingly never falls on the ground at noon. The
Brihadeshwar Temple is one of the tallest temples in the world and
is so designed that the vimana does not cast a shadow at noon
during any part of the year. 6. The Natyanjali Dance Festival,
Thanjavur is celebrated with great enthusiasm and religious fervor
for a continuous period of five days on the propitious occasion of
Mahashivratri. Dedicated to Lord Nataraj, the Natyanjali Dance
Festival of Thanjavur provides the artists of classical dances with
a wonderful opportunity to display their artistic skills and
creative talents 7. This is the largest temple in India and one of
India's most prized architectural sites. The temple stands amidst
fortified walls that were probably added in the 16th century. The
vimana or (temple tower) is 216 ft (66 m) high and is among the
tallest of its kind in the world. The Kumbam (Kalasha or Chikharam)
(apex or the 8. A big statue of Nandi is amazingly carved out of a
single rock and measures about 16 feet long and 13 feet high. This
shows that it is a distinctive example of architecture inside the
temple. 9. The temple became popular all over the country on its
1000th birthday in September 2010. In its commemoration, a rupees
postage stamp, featuring the 216-feet tall Raja Gopuram (Vimana)
was released by the India Post. A 5 rupee coin was released by the
Reserve Bank of India. A 1000 Rupees Commemorative Coin (with the
same picture on the 5 rupees coin) of Thanjavur Periya Kovil will
be issued soon. This will be the first 1000 Rupees coin to be
released in the Republic of India coinage, but it will not be for
public circulation (In April 1954, the
