The Brahadeewarar temple, called the Big Temple, is dedicated to Lord Siva.
It was built by the great Chola King Raja Raja 1 (985 -1012 A.D).
it is an outstanding exmple of Chola architecture. Recognizing its unique architectural excellence, UNESCO has declared it a World Heritage Monument.
The 64. 8 Mt. tall vimanam (tower over the sanctum sanctorum) is testimony to the engineering skill of the Cholas.
In keeping with the size of the temple, it has gigantic “Mahalingam” in the shrine, measuring 4 meters in height.
A monolithic Nandhi chiseled out of a single rock, measures 5. 94 meters in length, 2.51 metres in breadth and 3.66 meters in height. it is the second largest Nandhi in India.
The Nandhi or bull is the vehicle of Lord Siva.
Beautiful Chola fresco paintings adorn the inner walls of the Temple.
One of the outstanding temples in South India, the Brahadeeshwarar temple is the Chola dynast’s finest contribution to Dravidian temple architecture.
What makes the construction so unique is the variation from the usual temple building style of having a tall gopuram and smaller vimanam.
At the Big Temple the vimanam asoars high while the gopuram is smaller.
The 64. 8m tall, 14 tier pyramid shaped vimanam raised from a square base is topped by a huge monolithic cupola carved from an 81.3 tonne block of granite.
It was raised with the aid of a 6 km long inclined plane.
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