raja raja chola in thanjavur should be declared as one of the seven wonders

the architectural marvel built by raja raja chola in thanjavur should be declared as one of the seven wonders of the world what?! the taj mahal deserves it but how could a temple be a wonder is that what you're thinking well a mind-blowing architecture hundreds of inscriptions and huge sculptures all from a thousand years ago what else might you ask for?! get ready for a grand tour of rajaraja chola's brihadeeshwara temple the Thanjai Periya Kovil! "the name of this temple is not brihadeeshwara at all!" "during raja raja tomorrow's period this whole temple tower had been clad with golden sheets!" hello everyone i'm Ungal Anban Hemanth. 

Today we are going for a full tour of the brihadeeshwara temple in Thanjavur. regardless of wherever you live in the world i hope this video gives you a full experience of this temple as if you visited the temple yourself and don't forget to subscribe to this channel if you haven't done so yet before we get into the temple you should be knowing a little bit of history of Thanjavur vijayalayachola overthrew the Mutharaiyars and made Thanjavur the chola capital after that Thanjavur was ruled by the cholas for almost 400 years. then came the pandyas then it was ruled by the Thanjavur nayakas then the Thanjavur marathas ruled. 

Let's go into the temple now. the temple is surrounded by fort walls and a moat. this was built by Sevvappa Nayaka in the 16th century. the temple faces the east where the sun rises this entrance gate was built by the maratha kings in the later period. now let's take a look at the layout of this temple. this temple has two surrounding walls and two huge entrance towers. there is a nandi mandapa there is a Thiruchuttru maaligai for people to go around the temple. there is a 216 feet high vimana. there are many other smaller shrines spread across the temple complex. 

now we are at the first entrance tower the Keralanthakan Thiruvasal. you may ask, who in the world is Keralanthakan. it's none else then raja raja chola himself. after defeating the king baskara ravi varman of kerala he got this title. now we are going towards the second entrance tower the raja rajan Thiruvasal. now we've reached the temple's courtyard nandi mandapam is visible. wow the temple's vimana looks magnificent. 

today we are not only going for a tour of this temple we are also going to learn a lot about this temple. anything that you do in life is born out of an inspiration or a motivation. once upon a time raja raja chola happened to visit the kailasanatha temple of kanchipuram built by the pallavas. apparently he was dumbfounded to see its massive architecture. he was determined to build a similar temple and that's how the Thanjavur temple was born. the Thiruchuttru maaligai surrounds the whole temple. okay now let's get into the nandi mandapa. 

this nandi sculpture was installed by the nayaka kings it is very tall at 12 feet and besides that it is made of a single piece of rock. on the ceiling of this hall are paintings of beautiful flowers and birds. there are also statues of a few nayaka kings. did you think raja raja chola never built a nandi statue for this temple? how could it even be possible? the nandi built during raja raja chola's period has been kept at the Thiruchuttru maaligai. rather than going into the muga mandapa we'll walk on the side in the courtyard oh my! how magnificent! raja raja chola called this vimana the dakshinameru. he basically meant this is the meru mountain of the south. if you look closely, it has been made as if shiva and parvati are sitting in the meru mountain. raja raja chola was crowned as the king in 1085 AD, and the construction of this temple was completed during the 25th year of his rule that is, in 1080. another important thing - the name of this temple is not brihadeeshwara at all! it is not even Periya kovil. raja raja chola named this temple as raja rajeshvaram. the vimana of this temple that soars high like a mountain is 216 feet high. 

there are two levels at the bottom. at the center of this is the Garbagriha. inside this is a 13 feet shivalingam. at the lower level there's a passage for circumambulating the shiva lingam. here, beautiful chola paintings and a few nayaka paintings can be seen. on the upper level 80 out of the 108 Bharatanatyam karanas have been depicted in the form of lord shiva sculptures. why is it incomplete still remains a mystery to this day. i've sat here for a while, enjoying the grandeur of the vimana. well now let's go inside the temple. had an amazing darshan. 

now let's see what's in the Thiruchuttru maaligai. now we've reached the Thiruchuttru maaligai, the circumambulatory passage of the temple. there are inscriptions even on the pillars here! once upon a time there had been beautiful paintings on the walls here but today unfortunately it is in such a state of disrepair. as we walk further down, we see the big nandi that was created during raja raja chola's period. now let's go to the back side of the temple, but before that i'm going to tell you something that a lot of people do not know about. during raja raja chola's period this whole temple tower had been fully clad with golden sheets! i'm not making this up. there is inscriptional evidence for this. but god only knows who looted it in the later years. now let's go to the back side of the temple. here is a ganesha shrine built by the maratha king Sherfoji II. not too far away is the Karuvurar shrine built in the 20th century. 

further away is a large murugan temple. it was built by Sevvappa Nayaka in the 16th century. this is the backside wall of the temple. it is full of sculptures with inscriptions all over. now we've come to the northern side of the temple. even here there are two huge dwara palakas. words cannot describe the beauty of this vimana! also from this side devotees enter the temple for darshan. here is the chandikeswara shrine built by raja raja chola. this is the largest shrine in the world built for chandikeshwara. as i step into the Thiruchuttru maaligai on the side here, the wall murals are in perfect condition. well of course this is because this area is gated! For one last time, I took a look at the grand temple tower. I gasped, wondering when I'd get to see it again. Hope you enjoyed this video; now tell me in the comments if you think this grand temple deserves to be one of the seven wonders of the world. Oh - by the way, we're not done with this yet. In the next one, we're going to look at the phenomenal sculptures of this temple. Our search for history will continue!