Sri Bragatheeswara In Tanjore
Tanjore is famous all over the world as a royal city and its classic heritage. There are number of temples from the Chola period. The most popular Chola temple is the Brihadeswara temple that is very mighty and magnificent.
The Cholas built a very great temple of Sri Bragatheeswara in Tanjore. Brihadeswara temple is one of the most celebrated Hindu temples in the world. This thousands years temple is a World heritage site of UNESCO. This temple is a brilliant example of the Dravidian style of architecture. The Vimana of the temple is about 70 meters high and is the tallest in the whole world. It weighs 82 tons and is carved of a single stone. Later many additions were made to the temples that are worth looking at.
The temple is in the fort called as Sivaganga fort. This temple is also well known as the big temple in Tanjore. The Kalasha of the temple was put there by the Raja himself and the Vimana weighed nearly 235 lbs in gold. The main shrine here is of Sri Brihadisvsra, which in Sanskrit means Peruvudaiyar. There are five divisions in the temple: the sanctorum, Aradhana Mandapam, Maha Mandapam, Narthana Mandapam and Vaadya Mandapam. There are three portals in the main shrine guarded by Dwarpals. These guardians of the gate are huge and are of exquisite workmanship. Some of the guardians are very huge and have dimensions of 18 feet by 8 feet. There are many such guardians in the temple. These are of great artistic merit and are made of monolith.
Temple complex is on the banks of river and it was channeled to make a moat around the complex. You can enter from the one of the axis through a five storied gopuram. Second entrance is through the simple gopuram at the quadrangle. The main temple is very spacious composed of a sanctum, Nandi and a pillared hall. There are a number of sub shrines in the temple complex. The main Mandapam is dedicated to Shiva and it is in the form of a garbha Lingam. No one except the priests ar allowed to enter the garbha griha or wombs chamber. Other deities include the Sun god, Moon god, and Daksinmurthy are huge in size. The temple of Brhadeeswar has a rare Ashta Dik Paalakas ie lord of eight directions. All the statues of these gods of directions are life size and are amazing.
There are two walled enclosures surrounding the main temple. The outer wall is very high and the defines the area of the temple complex. It encloses the massive gopuram, portico, barrel vaulted gopurams and about over 400 pillars.
To see the Sri Bragatheeswara in Tanjore you can travel there easily. Tanjore is well connected to important places by state highways and National highways. Tamilnadu Transport Corporation and other Transport Corporations provide bus services to various places to and from Tanjore bus station. There are many private buses to Tanjore and you can take one from Trichy. You can also hire a private car or a taxi and reach the place. There is a railway junction at this place and it is well connected to all the important places in Tamil Nadu. The nearest airport to Tanjore is the Trichy airport.