Brihadeeswara Temple
'Brihadeeswara Temple' is also called as 'Thanjai Periya kovil' and 'Peruvudaiyar kovil', located at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. This city is famous for the rice cultivation and it's also known as 'The land of fertile paddy fields'.
This is the FIRST COMPLETE GRANITE TEMPLE in the World, it's an architectural wonder, which nobody can repeat it in today's world. Why it can't be replicated ? what's soooo special about this architecture ? Everything will be clear at the end of this topic.
Brihadeeswara Temple is more than 1000 years old, the Magnum Opus of King of Raja Raja Cholan I, which is not only famous for its gigantic size, structural design and sculptures there are many other additional aspects to it. It has been listed as UNESCO World heritage site under the listing of 'Great Living Chola Temples'
The Chola king Arulmozhivarman, adored as 'Raja Raja Chola I' ruled over entire south India, Ceylon, Malaya, Maldive Islands and Indonesia. He is a big devotee of Lord Shiva, it is said that he received orders in his dreams to build a temple for Lord Shiva and then he laid foundation for this temple on 1010 A.D, naming this temple as 'Raja Rajeshwaram'.
This temple was built in Dravidian style of architecture by the architect 'Kunjara Mallan Raja Rama Perunthachan' during the reign of king 'Raja Raja Chola I' in the year 1010 AD. The principal deity of this temple is Lord Shiva called as 'RajaRajeshwara' , later called as 'Brihadheshwara' meaning Great Lord / Lord of the world, it is one of the largest Shiva lingas in India. The king named this temple as 'Dakshina Meru', the Meru mountain of the South. It is also known as 'Periya Kovil' meaning 'Big Temple'.
The temple stands in the middle of vast rectangular courtyard, The prakaram (outer precincts of the temple) measures 240m by 125m, it has massive corridors. There are about 250 lingams in the entire temple compound and the outer wall of the upper storey is carved with 108 dance posters of 'Bharathanatyam', a classic dance of Tamil Nadu.
The architecture and the details on this gopuram are astounding !!! This temple is constructed with strong and eminent granite stones brought from various parts of South India. The Majestic Raja Gopuram (Tower of main deity) is a huge hollow structure with the height of 216 feet, the tallest granite structure in the world, which withstood all the natural extremities of weather, storms, rainfall, fire accidents and six earth quacks.
Thanjavur is a fertile red soil area where there are no granite stones. But, this temple was built using around 130,000 tons of granite, the sources of granite and the transportation done in those days are still not explained. Even, there are no remains of the stone and granite cutting quarry around 50 Km radius.Some say that they have used elephants for transportation, such that granite stones are placed over the wooden logs and the elephants roll the logs to move the stones from one place to another. It's constructed in such a way that stones are interlocked to stay intact, without using any binding material. There are no 200+ feet structure built in this world with no binding materials used.
The temple is constructed and aligned axially in the same line such that the shadow of main Gopuram (Tower of the main deity) doesn't fall on the ground at noon. In other way, this temple design acts as a Sundial, with Raja gopuram in the middle as Gnomon. Thanjavur temple is a flawless construction with 100% accuracy in design and 0.0⁰ angle lean. Brilliant vedic architects !!! Ofcourse, they didn't do any civil engineering courses....
This is the only Shallow Shiva temple which was built using interlocking granite stones without any binding materials. It's a wonder to many fine western architects who are unaware of our priceless ancient vedic science and technology. The solid base of the temple raises 16 feet above which stone deities are placed, it raises 13 storeys high.
Entrance of the temple
Two entrances (Gopuram) of the Temple
A mammoth Nandi (Sacred Bull, gatekeeper of Lord Shiva) is placed at the entrance of the temple, which also the second largest statue of Nandi, carved out of single stone. The place where the Nandi is placed called 'Nandi Manadapam'. This Nandi statue is about 12 feet height, 19.5 feet long and 18.25 feet wide, weighing about 20 tons. It is said that this monolithic stone was brought from the holy river bed of Narmada.
Painting on the ceiling of Nandi Mandapa
The Nandi (Bull) in the below picture was the originally sculptured bull during Raja Raja Chola period, which kept growing in size. The reason may be due to the weathering conditions / sculptured secret. Later, they have moved this Nandi and placed at the side of Mandapa and nailed to the ground.
Originally built Nandi, which was growing in size
The main deity of this temple is Lord Shiva in the form of Lingam and it is one of the biggest monolithic lingam in India. The Shiva lingam is 13.5 feet hight and 60 feet in circumference, made from a single stone The sanctum is 29 feet high occupying two storeys of the temple and it's called as 'Garbhagriha', where only priests are allowed to do pooja for the Lord. This place emits huge amount of electromagnetic positive energies and the energy keeps revolving around the sanctum by closing the top of the sanctum with the heavy and structural vedic Vimana. Thus the flow of energy in the temple creates healthy, soothing and divinely calming effects to the devotees.
And, for this reason Men enters into the temple in bare chest to absorb the positive energy and women wear gold for the same. These are not just old traditions, there are many scientific reasons behind each, mentioned in our priceless culture.
There is a rare stone called 'Chandrakanta stone' (Sacred Moon stone) installed under the Shiva Lingam, which makes the sanctum cool in summer and warm in winter. It is considered as a rare and sacred stone in India.
Chandrakanta Stone
On top of this 'Chandrakanta stone', Shiva lingam is placed which is made of Quartz, also called as 'Bana Lingam' taken from the holy river bed of Narmada and it's playing significant role in this sanctum.
Quartz - it's a precious and powerful stone used in ancient India. Quartz crystal has ability to produce and exchange energy. These crystals are superconductor of High frequency Cosmic rays, UV energy, Geo magnetic energy and conductors of visible light and IR radiation. Geo magnetic energy vibrates at 7.83 Hz, which is the resonance of our PRANAVA Mantra OM and also the planet's Schumann resonance
Quartz resonates all forms of radio waves on electromagnetic spectrum. Bombarding quartz crystal or hammering them causes piezoelectricity. Even our human bones and DNA are having piezoelectric property. Our Pranava mantra vibrates at 7.83 Hz, by chanting OM mantra, our DNA also resonates at the same frequency.
In the sanctum, daily rituals of chanting vedic mantras, performing abhishekams and poojas over the Bana lingam (Quartz Lingam) in the granite sanctum vibrates at 7.83 Hz frequency. Bana lingam amplifies the energy and creates a scalar field inside the sanctum. As it's a hollow shaped tower, created positive energy revolves inside the chamber and spread through the temple. In the temple, when praying God with our soul, these positive energies gets absorbed into our body, calms the mind, gives good spirit and divine thoughts. Our ancient Maharishis used this Quartz crystal for various reasons and also widely used in our vedic science.
Also, due to the triboluminescence property of Quartz, it emits light when it is rubbed. The Shiva lingam has been placed in a way that it receives light, even when there is no light / lamps inside the sanctum, (i.e) Sunlight falls on Nandi statue will be reflected on the Shiva Lingam every day.
Sri Vimana
The weight of the cap stone, Vimana is 80 tones, no man made structure in this world has such a heavy cap stone on top of the tall structured building. How the Indian architects successfully placed heavy cap stone on top of this tall temple 1000 years ago ?? What's the reason for a huge cap stone over a shallow temple structure ?
This huge cap stone is still mystery to many of the archaeologists and architects !!! When the archaeologists and westerners unable to decipher this divine structure, they fitted the reason as alien technology !!!!
This huge octagonal shaped cap stone is called as Sri Vimana, near the neck of the gopurama we can see 8 Nandis , 2 Nandis in each corner of the square neck, which is 26 feet by 26 feet in size carved out of single stone. See the below pictures of Vimana . The reason for vimana kept above the tower is, to create a repulsive force for the divine energy emitting from the sanctum, so that cosmic energy keep revolving inside the sanctum and spreads around the temple.
On Massive 16 storey main gopuram (tower) of which 13 tapering squares (that is 99 feet tall), Sri Vimana is placted with a finishing size of 216 feet, the tallest granite temple of the world.
It is one of the rare temple which has idols of 'Ashtaa - dikpaalakas' (Guardians of 8 directions) - God Indra, Agni, Yama, Vayu, Kubera, Isana, Varuna and Nirrti.
There are more mysteries and secrets about this temple, will be continued in second part
Sri Vimana
The weight of the cap stone, Vimana is 80 tones, no man made structure in this world has such a heavy cap stone on top of the tall structured building. How the Indian architects successfully placed heavy cap stone on top of this tall temple 1000 years ago ?? What's the reason for a huge cap stone over a shallow temple structure ?
This huge cap stone is still mystery to many of the archaeologists and architects !!! When the archaeologists and westerners unable to decipher this divine structure, they fitted the reason as alien technology !!!!
Sri Vimana at the top
View from bottom to top of the closed Vimana inside the sanctum
This huge octagonal shaped cap stone is called as Sri Vimana, near the neck of the gopurama we can see 8 Nandis , 2 Nandis in each corner of the square neck, which is 26 feet by 26 feet in size carved out of single stone. See the below pictures of Vimana . The reason for vimana kept above the tower is, to create a repulsive force for the divine energy emitting from the sanctum, so that cosmic energy keep revolving inside the sanctum and spreads around the temple.
Vimana / Huge stone cap on top of this temple
On Massive 16 storey main gopuram (tower) of which 13 tapering squares (that is 99 feet tall), Sri Vimana is placted with a finishing size of 216 feet, the tallest granite temple of the world.
It is one of the rare temple which has idols of 'Ashtaa - dikpaalakas' (Guardians of 8 directions) - God Indra, Agni, Yama, Vayu, Kubera, Isana, Varuna and Nirrti.
There are more mysteries and secrets about this temple, will be continued in second part
......to be continued
- Aarthi Thiyagarajan