Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli – temple country

Thanjavur was the capital of the great Chola Empire and later of the Thanjavur Nayaks and Maratha rulers, the Chola kings built most of the Thanjavur’s 93 temples. Yes, 93!!!! It seems each was auspicious in its own way. No, we didn’t visit every one, just a handful and even then they seemed to all blur into one!

On the way to Thanjavur is a town called Tiruchirappalli, known locally as Trichy, where we stopped off to see the Sri Ranganthaswamy Temple in Sirangam.

Where they were celebrating the final day of the ‘Thai Ther’ festival with a procession of the temple car around the streets starting at 6:15 am

But it had finished by the time we got there, shame.

The temple is practically a town in itself, with several residential and shopping streets within the overall compound. It’s very confusing especially as we didn’t have a guide.

Not sure if you can see but as we came out of this tower there is another vimana (tower) across the street and if you look at through the archway of that one there is a other behind.

This 1000 pillared Hall had intricate carvings on each of the pillars.

There were mini cribs in this temple too, placed by couples who want children.

We hadn’t anticipated stopping at this temple and we had dressed expecting a car journey ending at a hotel, so luckily the sleeves on my t-shirt were long enough but Jim’s shorts were a no-no. So we had to buy him a Dhoti (to me it lookes like a sarong) so that he would be allowed to enter (and only cost £1.50!!)

We arrived in Thanjavur in the early afternoon and not to be outdone I popped into a local ladies shop and also got myself something more suitable for temple visiting.

A bargain at just over £7 for the whole outfit.

Brihadisvara Temple

The following day we were on the temple trail again visiting the Brihadisvara Temple aka the Big Temple in Thanjavur and the biggest of the 93. It was built by the Chola king Rajaraja 1 (985-1012) and has the tallest vimana (pyramid tower built over the central shrine) at 62 metres with a cuppola on the top.

Unusually it was built with a moat around it, even more unusual is that they kept crocodiles in it. That would definitely put off any attacks!

This is a matchstick model of the temple we saw in the Palace museum

Inside the Nandi pavillion

The priest was kept very busy

These photos really don’t do justice to just how detailed the stucco carvings are.

lovely gardens

Having burnt the bottoms of our feet walking around we put our shoes back on and went to visit the Palace which was built in the mid 16th century.

what’s left of the Palace is now an art gallery and museum. Housing statues from the 10th to the 18th century.

There is a lovely garden in the centre.

The Nataraja sculpture depicts Siva’s cosmic dance, symbolising creation, preservation, and destruction. His raised leg signifies liberation, while his arms hold a drum and flame, symbolising creation and destruction. The circle of flames represents the universe, and the dwarf demon underfoot represents ignorance. You see this or ones very similar in every temple.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to see how sculptures are made and of course we ended up buying a small one!

Having made the the wax model, it’s then encased in clay. The clay lump is heated so the wax model melts, it’s buried in a pot (just in front of his feet) then he melts the metal in the fire and pours it in the mold.