The wonder that was India

It is said that there are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven millions. Being in India sometimes makes me feel like a child. One of the seven million wonders I have seen is this little island of Sri Rangam.

Kaveri river and Sri Rangam

It is not known when exactly this temple was built. It is known that great South Indian sage Ramanuja (11th century) made the temple his headquaters to preach his vaishnava philosophy.  When Ramanuja came from Kanchipuram to Sri Rangam, all the great Vaishnavas assembled there and Sri Rangam became main Sri Vaishnava Temple in India.

Painting on the temple walls: Vaishnava tilak

It is said that the temple Deity was first worshiped by Lord Brahma, then by Lord Rama, then by Ravana’s brother Vibhishana. Vibhishana wanted to take the Deity to Lanka to worship. He was allowed to do it but there was one condition: If he placed the Deity on the ground, he would not be able to move it from that spot. On his way through South India he placed the Deity on the bank of the Kaveri river and since that time Sri Ranganatha has stayed in Sri Rangam.

Sri Ranganath

Detail

There is an interesting story how the temple was built. It is said that about 300 years before the birth of Ramanuja there was a devotee named Tirumangai. Tirumangai was often travelling around the country and visiting the holy places. So once he came to the temple of Lord Ranganatha.  By that time the temple was completely damaged and filled with rats and bats. When Tirumangai saw that he became very unhappy and decided to built a beautiful temple for Lord Ranganath. But he didn’t have any money and noone was willing to donate many for the temple. Tirumangai became very angry and decided to become a robber and humble all the rich people by building a magnificent temple. With the assistance of his disciples he became a leader of a gang of robbers and they soon accumulated a great wealth. It took 60 years to complete the construction of the temple with seven high walls and by this time Tirumangai was over 80 years old.

Sri Rangam

Gopuram

In the meantime all the robbers believed that Tirumangai had cheated them by spending all the wealth for temple construction so they decided to kill him. However, one of them said that on the bank of the Kaveri river there is a large amount of Tirumangai’s treasure and he can take them there. So they all agreed and got a large boat to cross the Kaveri river. But it was the rainy season and all of them were drowned by the roaring waves of Kaveri.

Gopuram

At the top of every gopuram there is a monster face called Kirtimukha (eng. face of glory). In Skanda Purana it is said that this all-devouring monster was created by Shiva. It symbolises the change that marks the entry to the temple.

Kirtimukha

Inside the temple enclosure, the 1000 pillars hall was constructed in the Vijaya nagara period (14th – 16th century). Pillars are made of granite and carved with sculputres of horses.

1000 pillars hall

All the entrance towers (gopurams) are very colorful and covered with sculptures depicting lives of Gods, but there is also one white gopuram called Vellai gopuram. Once this were the gate where non-hindus were allowed to enter the temple enclosure and today it is reminder for the damage the temple suffered during the Muslim period and after that again durin the French collonial attacks.

Vellai gopuram

View from the Rock fort: Trichy, Kaveri river and the island of Sri Rangam

Thiruchirappalli, also known as Trichy together with the island of Sri Rangam is a place where the world’s biggest hindu temple is situated. Trichy or Tiruchirappali (sanskrit: trishirapuram) is named after a three-headed deamon Trishira who is said to did penances at this place. During the history it was ruled by various great kings. Situated on the banks of the river Kaveri, city has witnessed rises and falls of many South Indian dinasties like Cholas, Pallavas, Pandyas etc.

Trichy

In the middle of the town there is a huge 80 metre high rock and at the top of the rock there is a fort. It is said that the rock is one of the oldest in the world, more then 3 bilion years old. At the top of the rock there are two small temples dedicated to Lord Ganesha and Lord Shiva and you have to walk up 430 steps to reach it. It is said that this rock is one of three pieces blown off Mount Meru by Vayu, the Wind God.

Rock fort

2 km from Trichy, there is the island of Sri Rangam. The temple of Sri Rangam is glorified by many poets and sages. Its glories are also described in the Divya prabandham, 4000 verses composed by the South Indian saints Alvars. The temple is enclosed by 7 walls and 21 gopurams and occupies an area of 630 000 square meters. The highest gopuram, the tallest in the Asia, Rajagoupram, is  73 meter high.

Rajagopuram

Inside the temple walls there is an impresive 1000 pillar hall. In temple complex there are many shrines, but presiding Deity is Lord Ranganathar which statue  is 6.4 meter long.

Gopurams and the sanctum covered with gold

Gopuram detail

It is said that the Deity of Sri Ranganathar was worshipped by Ravana’s brother Vibhishana and it was visited by many great sages like Sri Caitanya and Ramanuja who made Sri Rangam his headquaters to preach his philosophy.

Mahabalipuram or Mamallapuram is a small town near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. It was built between 7th and 9th century by South Indian dynasty Pallava. Pallavas were the great patrons of Indian art and arhitecture and Mahabalipuram is of the greatest example of rock-cut arhitecture they left. Many temples were built during the regin of Narasimhavarman Pallava in the 7th century. Granite temples portraying stories of Mahabharatha, uncompleted rock-cut shrines and pavillons, stories carved in stones is what makes Mahabalipuram unique and worth visiting.

Mahabalipuram

The Shore Temple, carved out of granite, was once the largest temple in Mahabalipuram. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, this temple stood at the shore of the Bay of Bengal to greet passengers and merchants from all over the world.

Shore Temple

In the time of Pallavas Mahabalipuram was an important port of South India. And while we can read about the beauty and glory of the temple in ancient times, nowdays it looks a little bit careless. Beautiful carvings are washed out by the sea, and the shrine of Lord Shiva is ruined. Also the sea level decreased and the temple is not on the shore anymore.

Shore Temple

One mile away there is a shrine with five rathas in it. Rathas(eng. chariots) represent a small shrines, five of them, dedicated to the five Pandavas and their wife Draupadi.

Five chariots

The smallest rathas are Draupadi’s and Nala&Sahadeva’s rathas. Draupadi’s ratha is dedicated to the Goddess Durga and it is decorated with the female door-keepers at the entrance.

Draupadi's ratha

The biggest ratha belongs to Bhima who is depicted as huge, strong and always hungry. It is adorned with lion pillars.

Bhima's ratha

Bhima's ratha and Nakula&Sahadeva's ratha

Arjuna’s and Yudhishthira’s rathas are dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Yudhishthira's ratha

Not far from there is a place where u can see few caves with shrines dedicated to different Gods. There is also a large meadow and a small hill with rocks of different size and shapes. The most interesting is  Krishna’s butter ball which is a huge stone ball on the top of the hill.

Krishna's butter ball

Krishna's butter ball

Every shrine and temple is carved from one large piece of stone. Probably one of the most beautiful preserved carvings is so-called “The descent of the Ganges” also known as “Arjuna’s penance.” Sculputre is 34 ft long.

The descent of the Ganges

The descent of the Ganges

 One school says that the sculpture depicts the story of Arjuna’ s penance to get a powerful weapon from Lord Shiva while the other school thinks it depicts the penance of king Bhagiratha who brought Ganges to the earth to save his ancestors.

Detail

Another interesting place in Mahabalipuram is Tiger’s caves. Altough without tigers, the place contains shrines dedicated to Goddess Durga and Lord Shiva and also a few interesting caves.

Tiger's cave

Tiger's cave area

Poetry in stone

Brihadishvar Temple, Thanjavur

Thanjavur was the capital of the Chola Empire from the 8th to the 13th century. During that time some of the greatest work of Tamil literature and architecture were born. The Cholas continued the temle buliding tradition of Tamil Nadu started by Palava Empire. They constructed many temples all over the Tamil Nadu but the most important is the famous Brihadishvara Temple  (in tamil: peruvuḍaiyār kōyil)  in Thanjavur.

Detail

This magnificent temple, made up of 130,000 tons of granite, the main example of the mature Chola arhitecture, was built in 1003 AD by king RajaRaja 1 Chola. The main shrine is dedicated to the Lord Shiva. In the inner sanctum is the lingam 3.5 meters high. It is said that when the lingam was taken out  from the Narmada river it kept increasing in size which is why it is called Brihadishvara.

The main entrance

In the fornt of the main entrance there is a giant Nandi sculpture which is about 4 meters high and weighs about 25 tons. It is said that it grew in size  just like the lingam.

Nandi shrine

Nandi

The temple is unique because it’s arhitecture doesn’t resemble traditional South Indian arhitecture style with tall entrance towers and small tower over the inner sanctum. Vimana (the tower over the inner sanctum) is about 65 meters high while gopurams (entrance towers) are small.

Gopuram

Gopuram

Vimana

Inside the temple complex there are minor shrines dedicated to Jvaraharesvara (Deity who controls fever) and Lord Subrahmanya. There is also a 100-pillar hall with small lingams and paintings which portray the life of king RajaRaja.

Pillar hall

Inside the pillar hall there are eight shrines dedicated to the eight dik-paalakas, Lords of the eight directions: Indra, Varuna, Agni, Ishana, Vayu, Niruthi, Yama and Kubera.

Varuna : Controler of the west direction

There are many inscriptions engraved at the temple walls. They are the evidences about the daily life of that time.  They are also telling us that Brihadishvara temple complex was  a very popular place where traditional dances like Bharata Natyam were held.

Inscriptions on the temple wall

The temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site: Great Living Chola Temples.

Temple complex