The great temple at Thanjavur
Subtitle: one thousand years, 1010-2010
By: George Michell and Indira Viswanathan Peterson ; photographs by Bharath Ramamrutham
Contributors: Peterson, Indira Viswanathan, 1950-; Ramamrutham, Bharath; Marg Foundation (India)
Publisher: Marg Foundation
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Mumbai
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
ISBN-13: 9789380581019
Subjects: Pirakatīsvarar Tirukkōyil (Thanjāvūr, India); Hindu temples
Other titles: Mārg̲.
Description: A thousand years ago, in 1010 CE, the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur was consecrated by Rajaraja I Chola. This truly visionary monarch was the sponsor of what may be regarded as the greatest Hindu monument in the Tamil country. The genius of Rajaraja's architect, who conceived and executed this stupendous structural feat, and the multifarious talents of the numerous artists employed to work on its stone carvings and mural paintings, are still apparent today. The temple is the supreme achievement of the Chola era and indeed one of the greatest masterpieces of Hindu architecture and art in the whole of India.

While fully acknowledging Rajaraja's crucial role in conceptualizing and executing the Thanjavur temple, the volume also draws attention to the contributions of later Nayaka and Maratha patrons in the period spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. Thus was the ritual and artistic life of the monument preserved down to modern times.

All phases of the temple's history are presented in this volume, which offers a comprehensive account of its architecture, sculptures, paintings, and historical records, as well as its ritual and cultural life. Bharath Ramamrutham's splendid photographs are the most complete ever to be published. His images are supplemented by high quality digital images of the Chola-period murals in the passageway around the main shrine supplied by the Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle. --Book Jacket.
Notes: "Vol. 62, no. 1, September 2010"--T.p. verso; simultaneously issued in serial format as an issue of Mārg.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-186) and index.