Tower of Brahadeeswarar Temple, Tanjavur

The 1000 year old Brihadeeswarar Temple of Thanjavur has a magnificent tower that has been carved beautifully. On a square base stands the tall pyramidal structure of 66 meters in height, above which an enormous dome-like crown is placed.

The complete tower is built using granite rocks and the sculptures on them are held by a thin layer of mortar. There are 13 stages in the tower and the the first three stages of the tower houses the various forms of Lord Shiva and Parvathi including the Bichadanar, Lingothbavar, Durga, Shiva & Parvathi in natural standing pose.

Not only the outer view and the sculptures housed on the tower is amazing, the construction style of it is an architectural wonder. The tower is carved in such a way that at no time the shadow of huge tower does not fall on the ground.

On the front side of the tower in the east direction there is a sculptures that represent the abode of Lord Shiva called as Mahameru. One can see on this other Gods like Ganapathy, Subramania. This prominent masterpiece spans 3 stage of the tower from the 3rd to 5th stage.

At the top the tower is a monolithic huge octagonal crown of 7.8 meters height and weighing approximately 81 tones. Above this is the shining Kalasam of 12 feet height made up of gold. Also at the top of the tower are 8 nandhi's one in each corner. These Nandhi's are huge and each of them are carved from single stone.