The Brihadeeswarar Temple Thanjavur

The Brahadeewarar temple, called the Big Temple, is dedicated to Lord Siva. It was built by the great Chola King Raja Raja 1 (985 -1012 A.D). it is an outstanding exmple of Chola architecture. 

The Brihadeeswara temple is one of the few great Indian monuments listed in UNESCO's World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

The 64. 8 Mt. tall vimanam (tower over the sanctum sanctorum) is testimony to the engineering skill of the Cholas. In keeping with the size of the temple, it has gigantic “Mahalingam” in the shrine, measuring 4 meters in height. A monolithic Nandhi chiseled out of a single rock, measures 5. 94 meters in length, 2.51 metres in breadth and 3.66 meters in height. it is the second largest Nandhi in India. The Nandhi or bull is the vehicle of Lord Siva. Beautiful Chola fresco paintings adorn the inner walls of the Temple. One of the outstanding temples in South India, the Brahadeeshwarar temple is the  Chola dynast’s finest contribution to Dravidian temple architecture. What makes the construction so unique is the variation from the usual temple building style of having a tall gopuram and smaller vimanam. At the Big Temple the vimanam asoars high while the gopuram is smaller. The 64. 8m tall, 14 tier pyramid shaped vimanam raised from a square base is topped by a huge monolithic cupola carved from an 81.3 tonne block of granite. It was raised with the aid of a 6 km long inclined plane. 

The Brihadeeswarar temple is the major center of tourist attraction at Thanjavur. This temple is one of India's most prized architectural sites.The 'Vimana' - or the temple tower - is 216 ft (66 m) high and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. Thanjavur is the ancient capital of the Chola kings. King Rajaraja Chola constructed the Brihadeeswara Temple in 10th century AD and the architect Sama Varma designed it. Thanjavur was the center of learning during 10th to 14th century AD.

 

The Brihadisvarar temple in Thanjavur, the most important among the hundreds of temples built by the Chola emperors, has reached a milestone: a thousand years of existence. 

On 26th September,2010 Tamilnadu State Postal Department issued Postal Stamp issued a postage stamp featuring The Brihadeeswarar temple of Thanjavur to commemmorate the 1000th Year Celebrations of this Great Temple. An Indian monuments listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage list of historical sites and monuments.

On that day Post Master General, Central Region (TN), Tiruchirapalli has issued a set of 3 picture postcards to commemorate millennium celebrations of the Brihadeeswarar temple at Thanjavur. Set of three cards is priced at Rs. 15 (Rs. 5 each). An advertisement for the forthcoming INDIPEX 2011 Exhibition with logo is also placed on all three cards.

In my collection i have these 3 picture postcards issued by Tamilnadu Postal Department. 

Alongwith postal stamp Government also minted 5 rupees commemmorative coin on the occasion of 1000th Year Celebrations of this Great Temple.  In my collection i have a piece of this commemorative coin also.