Tanjavur Brhadisvara : An Architectural Study

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The Brhadisvara temple also known as the Rajarajesvara temple built by Raja Raja I in 1010 A.D. has been acclaimed as the finest achievement of Chola art. The perfection of its architectural plan, its impeccable balance, the sculptural reliefs and murals and the bronzes have been commented upon by art historians. Some inscriptions have been studied as invaluable sources for evidence of the administrative machinery of the Cholas. Each of these facets emerge from an integral vision where each part is related to the whole. In its totality, it is not a mere architectural monument, instead it is a living bio-organism which has served as a centre of social, economic and political life in many succeeding centuries. Movements travelled to it and in turn its influence permeated many others parts both far and near. During the Vijayanagar period, it had very active dialogue with Andhra and Karnataka; during the Maratha regime with North India and Western India. The significance of the temple and its patterns is not at the level of archaeology alone, it is exceedingly important as a centre of the region which provides milieu for interaction with other parts of India as also South East Asia. Its artistic excellence lies in the perfect balance of the parts and the whole, the architecture, sculpture, painting, the stone and the bronze images, the idols within, the reliefs without. The inscriptions on the walls of the temple provide a vast corpus of information at the level of economic, social, cultural, organizational and administrative patterns and structures. The Chola monuments, the Brhadisvara temple at Tanjavur in particular along with the Gangaikondacholapuram temple, have attracted the attention of archaelologists, epigraphists, literary critics, musicians, dancers, craft specialists, sociologists and anthropologists. The present volume on the Architecture of the Brhadisvara temple is the first of technical monographs as a result of the project. It is only appropriate that the architectural plan of the monument should precede the other studies relating to inscriptions, sculptural programme on inner and outer wall, murals in the garbhagrha, karanas on the upper storeys, inscriptions and much else. A standard code has been devised so that all subsequent studies will follow the same code. It is the monument which provides centrality to the region and constitute the steel frame for further studies on other aspects. Kapila Vatsyayan