A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.80

c21.80

The maturity of Chola architecture found expression in the two magnificent temples of Tanjore and Gangaikondaśolapuram. The superb Śiva temple of Tanjore, completed about 1009 (Pl. IX), is a fitting memorial to the material achievements of the time of Rājarāja. The largest and the tallest of all Indian temples, it is a masterpiece constituting the high-water mark of South Indian architecture. The vimāna, the ardhamanḍapa, mahāmanḍapa, and the large nandi pavilion in front are all aligned in the centre of a spacious walled enclosure, 500 feet by 250 feet, with a gōpura gateway in front on the east. On the inner side of the high enclosing wall runs a pillared corridor connecting together a number of sub-shrines raised at the cardinal points and at intervals along the four sides. A second gōpura in front of the first forms the gateway of a second and outer enclosure. The main feature of the whole scheme is the grand vimāna towering to a height of nearly 200 feet over the garbhagriha in the west and dominating everything in its vicinity. Its great dignity is due to the simplicity of its parts—the 'square vertical base, the tall tapering body and over all the graceful domical finial'. The vertical base is a square with sides 82 feet long rising perpendicularly to a height of 50 feet. Above it is the pyramidal body mounting up in thirteen diminishing tiers, the width at the apex being equal to one-third of its base.