Visiting South
Indian Temples and Places of Interest
Our trip
routes
Fly to
Madurai and drive to Rameshwaram stay there for the night. Drive back to
Madurai and stay in Madurai. Drive to Kumbakonam and Flyback from
Tiruchirappalli to Bengaluru.
October 16, 2019
10/16
Our main objectives today are to visit the Brihadeeswarar temple in Tanjavur (Anglicized as Tanjore) and the Ganapati Rock temple. In the remaining time, we would explore other places.
The
Big Temple or the Brihadeeswarar Temple
Brihadeeswarar (Brihadeshwara temple, the Big Temple) is the most representative of Tamil architecture in Tanjavur on the Southbank of the Kaveri river. Tanjavur is located some 350 km southwest of Chennai). It was built by the Tamil king Raja Raja Chola 1 (Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur - Wikipedia) during 1003-1010 A.D. After the Cholas, it came under the rule of Marathas for a while. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site part of the “Great Living Chola Temples”. It is an engineering marvel considering the effort it must have taken to build the Shiva temple out of the granite of immense proportions.
The Big temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument
Brihadeshwara temple is a Shaivite temple dedicated to God Shiva. The fortified walls around the temple precinct were added in the 16th Century. Built from granite, the tower is one of the tallest in South India. It is just not one temple but a temple complex. There are separate shrines for other deities (Ganapati, Kartikeya, Parvati, Nandi, and others). It is a small wonder that it is the destination of many tourists.
The temple architecture evolved from the Chalukya era (5th and 9th Century), followed by the Pallava era superseded by the Chola period (850 to 1280 C.E). It may therefore be deemed as the culmination of the South Indian architectural style. The onslaught of the raids and wars by the Muslims from the North was controlled to some extent by the Chola kings. However, the inevitable damage was not completely contained.
We begin our story from here on.
We had a nice breakfast at Poppy's. It really was a great breakfast with idly, dosa, poori, kichadi, etc. This is a good start.
We leave at 8:57 a.m. It was drizzling with an overcast sky. We take some umbrellas.
People
waiting for one of the inter-city buses in Madurai, TN, on a rainy morning
At 9:20 we follow the Tanjavur (Tanjore) road and visit Brihadeshwara temple.
Tamilnadu Tourism: Brihadeeswarar Temple – Murals/Frescos (tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.com)
We arrive at the Tanjore big temple at 9:59 a.m. We engaged a local guide, an excellent one. He could speak English quite well and sometimes spoke in Tamil as well. He was a very nice, friendly guy and he is one of the registered ones. It is best to avoid ad-hoc guides who are adept at exaggerating. He also took some pictures of our group.
Ramparts of
the fort which, our guide said was built after the main temple was built.
Our group getting ready to go in
The first Gopuram at the entrance
There are stone inscriptions at various locations in the complex. It was the wisest choice made by the Cholas that has enabled these to survive despite the Mussulman invasions.
Nandi Mandapam
As soon as you enter through the gateway of the entrance you will see the imposing Nandi Mandapam. This is the structure that houses the sacred bull, Nandi. Nandi is the bull that is always associated with Shiva. The bull directly faces the Shiva statue in the main temple.
Here are some pictures of this structure as well as the frescos painting in the ceiling of this structure.
Wide view of complex with Nandi Mandapam
Our group in front of the Mandapam.
Frescoes on the ceiling
The group with Nandi in the background
The smaller Nandi Mandapam that was built during the later Hoysala period
If you proceed past the Nandi Mandapam towards the main temple you will see the Nandi Kamba, a pillar of stone with brass covering. This structure is part of any Hindu temple. The pillar in front of Vaishnava deities is called the Garuda Kamba (Garudagamba)
Here is a detailed view of the base of this pillar.
Main Temple Just before you enter the main temple after climbing a few steps you encounter the 'Dwara Palakas' [Nandi and Mahakala] on either side of the entrance. These are immense monolithic structures carved in stone.
Dwara Palakas are literally the guardians of the temple deity.
It is expected to take their
permission to enter the inner sanctum
The outer surfaces of most Hindu temples are extensively carved with mythological stories as well as the depiction of scenes, animals, festivals related to those times.
The group in front of the main temple
In addition to the Main Temple, there are a number of shrines for various related deities including one for an architect associated (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuvurar) with the Brihadeshwara temple whose lineage dates back to the celestial architect Vishwakarma himself.
Amman Temple
Brihannayaki temple, also known as Amman temple, is dedicated to the divine consort. We did not enter the temple for want of time. However, there are fine sculptures and frescoes from the Maratta period.
Subramanya Temple
Another of the related shrines is that of the God Subramanya, the first son of Shiva. The Subramanya shrine was built during the Nayaka period. The inside of the temple has the main deity with his two consorts and is very rich in detailed exquisite sculptures. Again, we had to skip going inside. We really had half a day.
Here is a picture of the temple in our photo collection.
There was a considerable foreign presence during those times in addition to the invading Islamic invaders as seen in the above picture. There is a foreigner wearing a hat in the circled area.
An official description of the temple from the Archeological Survey of India is here:
In various locations in the temple complex, there are frescoes and the frescoes at the Nandi Mandapam were shown earlier.
Brihadeshwara Temple Frescoes
If you walk around the stone corridor in the outer periphery of the complex, you can see many more frescoes that were painted during various periods and sometimes painted over the earlier ones. The frescoes were painted during the times the land was ruled by the
- Cholas (11th Century),
- the Nayakas (17th Century) of Vijayanagar Kingdom
- and the Marathas (18th to 19th Century).
Here are some samples:
This YouTube video shows them with some introduction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gp7_vmVIwo
We visited
the gift shop at the entrance there was a huge crowd. Two of the shops displayed the highlights of the Tanjore style paintings with gilt as one of the chief components and the exquisite metalwork handed down for generations to the metal-smiths of this town.
The rain had not let
up and it was wet everywhere. We finished our Big Temple visit
around 11:28 and immediately left.
Metalwork demo
After the
visit, not too far from the Big Temple on Raja Raja Street, we visited a small
business run by some 5 artists dealing with the famous Tanjore paintings and
brass/metal figurines castings. Madurai is known from antiquity for its metal
craft and is famous all over India.
In Madurai, they made the finest steel for swords with its distinct metallurgy (https://www.thebetterindia.com/158830/tamil-nadu-research-facts-damascus-steel/) in antiquity.
The business supplied metal castings of figurines from various Tamil dynasties. The guy we
visited was having a little foundry in his backyard and demonstrated to us the lost-wax
process of making the brass figurines. We also visited his gallery of paintings
which included paintings of Indian deities with gilt and local colors. These
are famous all over India.
Lunch qt A2B Restaurant
After the demo and the visit, we had lunch at the A2B restaurant. It happened to be World Food Day. I did see people ordering more than they can eat and leaving behind the food. This was a one-stop restaurant where you can get food from various regions of India. Food was surprisingly good for such a generic eatery.
Our group's member Rama was interested in a specific Ganpati temple that was supposed to be close by. We might have found it, had we searched, but temples open only after 4 p.m. and we could not wait that long. We went back to the hotel to take some rest.
Ucchi Pillayar Temple (Rock Fort Temple)
We left the hotel again at 4:00 p.m. as most temples open around that time. We arrived
at the 7th Century Ucchi Pillayar temple at 5:00 PM. This temple of God Ganesh was
finished during the Vijayanagar kingdom and is also called Rock Fort temple as it is
on a rock. To reach the temple you need to climb 407 steep steps. About 1/2 way
is Shiva and Parvati temple. Michiko (a member of our group) was stopped at the halfway point because she was a foreigner, but an
Indian lady visiting the temple strongly pleaded with the gatekeepers and got her in to visit the
Shiva, Parvati temple. The temple official who stopped her later apologized
profusely as the no-nonsense lady who pleaded made the official known her
strong connections in New Delhi. We later met with the lady, and she wanted a
picture with us.
Here is a stunning
view of Madurai midway from the hilltop.
The river Cauvery flows
quietly in the distance. This picture is from a rest area before reaching the
final stop at the top.
Here is another view of the landscape below.
View of the Ganesha temple at the hilltop from the rest area.
We returned to the hotel after having dinner at the same restaurant in Madurai. Tomorrow good bye to Trichy, auf Wiedersehn!
