The Big Temple.

There are temples older than the Big temple at Thanjavur.There are temples that are so huge and sprawling that they occupy more space, have taller gopurams,,bordered by many more acres of gardens and much more magnificent tanks brimming with water scented by lotuses and lilies, all over India.

Then why does the temple at Thanjavur take the cake?

To answer this question one must actually see it,just as one can grasp the deep love of an emperor for his wife expressed in snow white marble ,only by setting one's eyes at the Taj at Agra.

The temple at Thanjavur has a hypnotic quality that seems to radiate the aesthetic and deep seated spiritual stirrings of a mighty warrior and ruler of South India 1000 yeras ago ----Raja Raja Chola.

Just as the architects shaped the longings of a emperor in marble to perfection , the Stapathi's have a good 500 years earlier, chisselled this temple with a timeless beauty, giving peerless shape to the ardent devotion of the Chola emperor to lord Shiva.

It is a flawless drawing in stone . Its beauty has to be seen to be believed.