page_title: Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram
section_title: Courtyards
hierarchical_section_title: Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram / Description / Courtyards
caption_attribution_description: English: Courtyard, Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram
context_page_description: Nataraja Temple, also referred to as the Chidambaram Nataraja temple or Thillai Nataraja temple, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Nataraja – Shiva as the lord of dance – in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The temple has mythical roots and a Shiva shrine existed at the site when the town was known as Thillai. Chidambaram, the name of the city and the temple literally means "atmosphere of wisdom" or "clothed in thought", the temple architecture symbolizes the connection between the arts and spirituality, creative activity and the divine. The temple wall carvings display all the 108 karanas from the Natya Shastra by Bharata Muni, and these postures form a foundation of Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance. The temple is located at the Center point of world's Magnetic Equator.
  The present temple was built in the 10th century when Chidambaram was the capital of the Chola dynasty, making it one of the oldest surviving active temple complexes in South India. After its 10th-century consecration by the Cholas who considered Nataraja as their family deity, the temple has been damaged, repaired, renovated and expanded through the 2nd millennium.
context_section_description: The Nataraja Temple complex is embedded inside four prakarams (prakramas, courtyards). Each of the courtyard has walls that were defensively fortified after the 14th-century plunder and destruction. 
  The outermost wall around the fourth courtyard has four simple, insignificant gateways. The walls and gateways of the fourth courtyard were added in the 16th century by Vijayanagara rulers after they had defeated the Madurai Sultanate, and this outermost layer was heavily fortified by the Nayakas in the 17th century. These face the four large gopurams that are gateways into the third courtyard. These gopurams are also landmarks from afar. Inside the third courtyard, near the northern gopuram, is the Shivaganga tank, the thousand pillar mandapam, the Subrahmanyar (Murugan, Kartikeya) shrine and the shrine for Parvati (as Shivakama Sundari). The other three gateways are closer to the sanctum. The four gopurams pilgrims and visitors to enter the temple from all four cardinal directions. The complex is interconnected through a maze of pathways.
  The courtyard walls and gateways are made from cut stones with some brick structure added in. The gardens and palm groves are in the fourth courtyard, outside the walls of the third courtyard walls with the four large gopurams. These were restored or added in by the Vijayanagara rulers in the 16th century.
caption: Courtyard, Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram
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