A 1000 years of Wonder

There is a well known Jinx, floating around about the Periya Kovil(Big Temple) of Thanjavur.People have muttered that, the fate of any prominent political figure,who visited or saw the Gopuram of this temple ,did not end well.Some have tried to cite how Indira and Rajiv Gandhi have visited Thanjavur.It is even said that, a former Chief minister's cavalcade passed in front of the temple only after its Gopuram was covered with thatches.

Well, 'Brihad' means Big in Sanskrit.Brihadeshwara thereby as the 'Bigger Lord'.

Today, I wish to talk about something, for which I am grossly inept.How can somebody be adroit in describing the Marvel that has stood for a 1000 years(1010-2010 AD).Which has seen an, emperor, a Tamil maven, who built this Temple. The symbol of His devotion has stood timeless.

The engineering splendor of this temple is discernible by just,its Gopuram as the Shadow is not cast on the ground.The mammoth stone on the top, is a single piece of rock.Reasearches now concede that, a 5 degree man made slope was built to take the stone up the acclivity,many kilometers and slide down, so that elephants could drag the stone at its place.Then comes the BigNandi,the Linga, possibly the biggest in India.Aptly Brihad!!.I still remember the day I got placed,I went to this temple and looked agape at the lord who seemed bemused with my little offer letter.

The Hub :

At the epoch of the Chola empire,this temple represented the lord and the grandeur of the people,who would toil hard on the riverbanks of the Cauvery.Craftsmen would quarry hard granite stone,by first inserting small holes into the rock and leave it wet to be broken after days.The harvest in the kingdom would be so large ,that pachyderms would be used as thresher mammals.Ships near the Thanjai dockyard would stockup spices to be shipped to sumatra and Java with some being downloaded with Eelam (todays Srilanka) chillies.Shilpadhari's would fastidiously use gold and copper to mold statutes with grace.The method of using mud daubing to create such art used even today.People,at dusk would gather at the temple to see the devadasis dance to the lord on a pradosha.A socio-cultural and religious Hub indeed!!.

BrihanNayaki(Goddess who controls the Large) at the sanctum sanctorum ,would be a place for myriad alankaras and Brahmin's would hum the Saundarya Laheri.

The rise and fall of a nation is manifest.Raja Raja Chola and his empire did not last forever,but the temple has witnessed monumental changes to the subcontinent.It has stood unperturbed with the islamic invasion,endured the Raj and now ,a self abashing Dravidian movement.Maybe because the Big Lord seldom needs to look at such extraneous aberrations.

The temple still has a engraved names of the workers in Tamil and people involved at the temple during its construction.Even the devadasis and their addresses in their time were engraved as suggested on the ornate outer walls with beautiful gargoyles on top.Unlike the Taj mahal ,where it is alleged that workers were awarded with abscission of hands for their dexterity,the names on the Chola Big temple seem to be preserved in sempiternity for their devotion.

To the Jinx now.No one knows the level of reverence of the Gandhis and to the proponents of the Jinxed theory,when considered jinxed,every event seems to be misrelated and when kowtowed with deference,serenity follows.The fault therefore,cannot be attributed to the Lord or his abode at all.The day,when the Tamil people realize the importance of these temples and hold them with the same reverence as their ancestor's , will they begin to see the beauty of Tamil as a form of Murugan and learn to cherish and foster what is truly an elixir in today's world with only pecuniary ends.

Panorama - Take a tour:

For a 360 degree panoramic view of this magnificent temple please visit here.You may or may not get a chance to travel here,but a virtual tour at different spots inside the temple,seems a good option if you are seated abroad.

Learn more and do donate to this temple if possible - Wikipedia has good info if not whole : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadeeswarar_temple