Gangaikonda Cholapuram
- January 16th, 2021
We started our drive from Chidambaram towards the town of Gangaikonda Cholapuram, located around 45+ kms away and which took us about an hour. This was where we saw the first among the three Great Living Chola temples –The Arulmigu Peruvudaiyar temple more popularly known as The Brihadisvara Temple.
This city bears historical significance to the fact that King Rajendra Chola I, the son of the famed King Raja Raja Chola defeated the Pala kings who were holding fort near the Ganges river and named it thus – Gangaikonda Cholapuram or the City of the Conqueror of the Ganges river.
Legend has it that the Ganges water was carried in golden pots and the Cholaganga reservoir was consecrated with it.
This temple took almost 9 years to build and was completed in 1035 AD. This beautiful piece of Dravidian style of architecture earned its recognition from UNESCO as a World Heritage Site and has the largest phallic form of Lord Shiva in the form of a Shiva Lingam, almost 4 metres high and said be the largest in South India.
The Vimanan or the Temple Tower is 180 feet high and has 9 storeys and is around 10 feet smaller than the Thanjavur Temple which has 13 storeys. Its believed by Historians that the height of this temple was deliberately kept low in dimensions compared to the Thanjavur temple as a mark of respect King Rajendra wanted to show for his father Raja Raja Chola’s masterpiece in Tanjore.
There is a huge statue of Nandi the bull, completely sculpted in stone, located at the entrance of the temple.
Dravidian Architecture at it best
The temple is designed in a uniquely symmetrical way with each storey looking like a square circle oblong piece of art. The design of each of these storeys keeps replicating but however in a shrinking fashion as one looks upwards, giving the temple a Parabolic look at the top.
