This beautiful temple is considered to be the sanctuary of arts. It is identified as a heritage site of Tamilnadu by the UNESCO. The temple is believed to be constructed by Raja Raja II before 800 years. This temple is one of the finest examples of Dravidian architecture.
Main deity – Airavateswar
His consort – deivanayaki
Architectural marvels of the temple
This temple has the largest of sculptures than any chola temple.
One can observe minute carpentry designs being carved in to stone sculpture instead of wood. The balipeedam is made of a fleet of steps.
This tomb is called as ‘Paadum padigal’; since the stone steps tend to make singing noises when tapped.
The basement wall of the ‘Karuvarai’is carved with the stories of nayanmars.
Sculptures such as dwarabalakas, which were brought from chalukyas and gajasamhara murthy are now preserved with tanjore’s archeological museum.
There are a lot of sculptures showing the majestic poses of Lord Shiva and sati and many of the historic scenes such as vaali vatham, manmatham ambu tell us stories.
The vimanas, mandapas, stais, wherever you turn around the temple all you could see are majestic sculptures whose beauty could blind you for the whole day.
Puranic lore
The temple town was called as Rajarajeswaram during the chola period, as times grew the name got changed to darasuram. The chola king had his capital city near darasuram at the place called pazhayaarai. There are sculptures belonging to the king and constructor of the temple Rajaraja chola and his wife.
The Archaeological Survey of India is maintaining the temple well. With lush green lawns in front and illumination, the temple has become a tourist spot.
nice...carpentry designs
ReplyDeletenice..
ReplyDeletecarpentry designs