Thursday, February 23, 2012

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.

56 comments:

Al said...

Spectacular, it must be even better in person.

Kavita Saharia said...

Magnificent .That huge crown is a masterpiece .I envy you Rajesh ,you travel such a lot and get to see these amazing places .

Cloudia said...

Boggles the imagination!


Aloha from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral

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RIZALENIO said...

Superb craftsmanship as always.

Pietro Brosio said...

The Tower of Brahadeeswarar Temple is amazing! Incredible sculptures there, so detailed. Wonderful images, Rajesh.

Travel France Online said...

I wonder how long it took to create such an elaborate architecture> this is splendid!

sappy said...

Such a great detail of describing the Tower!And also,it is worth mentioning that this Tower requires a special blog post to be dedicated to itself.

Teamgsquare said...

Nicely done

Sridharan said...

I have been to this temple a couple of times and I love the architecture.. Good photos.

Jeevan said...

Beautiful capture on this marvelous structure, Rajesh! The room on the dome is amazing with great details!

Dee........ said...

Thanjavur guy here :)
wonderful snaps !
thanks for sharing and its our pride :)

Sallie (FullTime-Life.com said...

So beautiful. I never get over being totally amazed at the beautiful carvings you show us -your pictures are amazing.

abhinavr said...

Informative post with relevant photos.
Nice, Keep going...

joo said...

Another impressive and beautiful place in your country!

Family Travellers said...

Just stumbled on your blog. It has piqued my interest in visiting India some day. Thanks for sharing.
www.worldfamilytravellers.blogspot.com

Sharodindu said...

A 1000 year old temple!
simply wow!! lovely post and thanks for sharing.. :)

Carver said...

The tower is magnificent and looks great against the sky.

Sylvia K said...

What an incredible tower!! Love the color and how perfect it is against your blue skies! Terrific capture as always, Rajesh! Thanks for sharing the beauty!

Sylvia

Steffi said...

Very beautiful and interesting photos of India.I like to read your interesting posts!Thank you for sharing and have a nice weekend!

Kim, USA said...

Wow that is beautiful!

SWF

annalarssonphotography said...

Impressive building!

Tatjana Parkacheva said...

Beautiful temple.

Regards and best wishes

Anonymous said...

the detail is so intricate... amazing work! WoW! =)

Photo Cache said...

incredible factoids.

My sky is here

Unknown said...

Beautiful structure!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

Lowell said...

The people who put this together were not only very talented artists and engineers as well. Incredible and very beautiful!

Raj said...

This is a temple I have visited several times. It is absolutely magnificent. You have captured it beautifully and I loved the detailed descriptions too. :)

Carol said...

Amazing architecture! Beautiful!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

This is such a beautiful temple! It does not look 1,000 years old. The design and carvings are in such perfect condition.

Liz said...

Beautiful photos. Happy sky watching.

My Sky.

Leovi said...

Beautiful photos, beautiful tower. Greetings.

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Absolutely magnificent.

eileeninmd said...

Lovely capture of the tower, Rajesh!

My Unfinished Life said...

we skipped this destination on our south india trip this town..maybe next time we are down south!!

http://sushmita-smile.blogspot.in/

George said...

This tower is absolutely amazing. It's hard to imagine all the work that went into creating these fantastic details. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Susie of Arabia said...

The details are simply amazing!

LifeRamblings said...

the tower looks truly majestic.

Pearl Maple said...

How interesting that they were able to build the tower without shadows on the ground.

Kelly said...

The architectural detail in this is amazing!!

Full-On-Forward said...

OMGosh--How INTRICATE!!!!

Loved it!

John

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous! 1000 years old... beautiful.

Gemma Wiseman said...

Magnificent sculptured tower! Incredible detail at every level! But the most amazing news is that the tower's shadow is always cast on the earth!

Chubskulit Rose said...

What a beautiful tower.

Thanks for contributing art to shadow shots!

Coo Coo Clock Shadow

LV said...

After visiting you blog each week, feels like I am back in school taking a history.

eden said...

Impressive structure. Great shots.

Lighthousegal said...

Your photos are Amazing!! The tower has such intricate detail and your photos show the overall height as well as the details in the structure.

Herding Cats said...

Wow, that is absolutely stunning!

Chubby Chieque said...

Good job once again.

Love every details. It sounded you're our tourist guide.

Terrific...

Happy SSS...
/chie

Rajesh said...

Thank you all for appreciating the wonderful craftsmanship.

jewaicious said...

What stunning captures of architectural beauty.

TTT said...

beautiful !!!

Nirvana said...

A stunning creation! Thank you for the pics

Panchali said...

gorgeous!! great shots, Rajesh!

Ashwini said...

Awesome architecture!!

Unknown said...

Great architecture! Well photographed!!

Rajesh said...

Thank you all for appreciating the grand architecture of the tower.