page_title: Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram
section_title: Artwork on the gopuram
hierarchical_section_title: Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram / Description / Towers: gopurams / Artwork on the gopuram
caption_attribution_description: English: Sculpture in a wall at Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu
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: Each gopuram is colorful and unique in its own ways. They narrate stories from various Hindu texts, showing religious and secular scenes from the various Hindu traditions. This art is presented in each gopuram with anthropomorphic figure panels and about fifty niches with stone sculptures in every gopuram. The scenes include multiple panels about the legend of Shiva-Parvati wedding with Brahma, Vishnu, Saraswati and Lakshmi attending, dancing Ganesha, Shiva in his various aspects, Durga in the middle of her war with a demon, Skanda ready for war, seated Nandi, musicians, dancers, farmers, merchants, sadhu in namaste posture, dancing dvarapalas near the vertical center line and others. The artists and architects who built these gopura may have had a rationale in the relative sequence and position of the artwork with respect to each other and on various levels, but this is unclear and a subject of disagreement among scholars.
  The earliest built western gopuram is the only one with inscriptions below each artwork that identifies what it is. The artwork on it includes Durga fighting the evil, shape shifting buffalo demon and Skanda sitting on peacock and dressed up for war. Other artwork found on the eastern gopuram include Surya, Ganapati, Vishnu, Sridevi (Lakshmi), Tripurasundari, Brahma, Saraswati, Varuna, Durga, Agni, several rishis, Yamuna goddess, Kama and Rati, Budha, the Vedic sages such as Narada and Agastya, Pantanjali, Somaskanda legend, Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati), Harihara (half Vishnu, half Shiva), several forms of dancing Shiva and others.
  The surviving south gopuram called the Sokkaseeyan Thirunilai Ezhugopuram was constructed by a Pandya king identified from the presence of the dynasty's fish emblem sculpted on the ceiling. The Pandyas sculpted two fishes facing each other when they completed gopurams (and left it with one fish, in case it was incomplete). Other artwork found on the southern gopuram include Chandesha, Ganapati, Vishnu, Sridevi (Lakshmi), several Devis, Brahma, Saraswati, Surya, Chandra, Durga, Indra, Agni, several rishis, Ganga and Yamuna goddesses, Kama and Rati, Budha, the Vedic sages such as Narada, Pantanjali, Somaskanda legend, Ardhanarishvara (half Shiva, half Parvati), Harihara (half Vishnu, half Shiva), several forms of dancing and standing Shiva such as Pashupata, Kiratarjuna and Lingobhava, as well as others.
  The eastern gopuram features the 108 reliefs of Natya Shastra dance postures (22 cm each in a separate niche) and faces the sanctum. The eastern gopuram is credited to king Koperunsingan II (1243-1279 A.D.) as per epigraphical records and was repaired with support from a woman named Subbammal in the late 18th century.
  The northern gopuram was repaired and finished by the Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya (1509-1530 A.D.) in the 16th century. The eastern and northern gopura also depicts the wide range of narratives as the southern and western gopuram.
  The idols of Pachaiappa Mudaliar and his wife Iyalammal have been sculpted on the eastern gopuram. The Pachaiappa Trust to date has been responsible for various functions in the temple and also maintain the temple car. The eastern gopuram is renowned for its complete enumeration of 108 poses of Indian classical dance – Bharathanatyam, detailed in small rectangular panels along the passage that leads to the gateway.
caption: Sculpture in a wall at Nataraja Temple in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu
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