The Colas c35.34

c35.34

Compared with the smaller temples of the same age, these two, as Percy Brown observes, ‘are as cathedrals to a village church.’²⁷ Begun according to the records in the temple some time about 1003, the Rājarājeśvara (now called Bṛhadīśvara) of Tanjore was sufficiently advanced in construction by 1006 to allow of Rājarāja worshipping in the central shrine with the offer of golden flowers on his return from the war against the Cāḷukya Satyāśraya, and we have seen that on the 275th day of the twenty-fifth year (1009-10) of his reign he solemnly dedicated the copper-pot (*kalaśa*) meant to serve as the finial (*stūpi*) at the top of the *vimāna*.²⁸ This was apparently the most ambitious undertaking of Tamil architecture quite in keeping with the vast power and the growing extent and resources of the Cōḷa empire (VI fig. 11). The main structure is 180 feet long, and the massive pyramidal *vimāna* rises to a height of 190 feet over the sanctum excelling thus even the Lingarāj (160 feet) of Bhuvaneśvar, then a recent construction. Barring the portico, the *nandimaṇḍapa*, the Karuvūr Devar shrine, the *amman* shrine and that of Subrahmaṇya which are the most substantial later accretions, most of the structures of this grand temple are of one period, and it is not difficult to appreciate the majesty and simplicity of its unitary plan. The axial structures, the *vimāna*, the *ardhamaṇḍapa*, *mahāmaṇḍapa* and the big *nandi* are set in a walled enclosure of suitable proportions with a *gōpura* in front on the east. Abutting the *madil* inside runs a pillared cloister connecting together a number of subshrines, thirty-five in all, placed at the cardinal points and at intervals along the four sides. There is a second *gopura* in front which formed the gateway of a second outer enclosure.