Design of a Bygone Era

I have always been fascinated by design- art/science/ technology/fashion is full of examples of people striving to "design". Personally, i have a passion for interior designing. But, i love "design" in many forms- paintings, sculptures, architecture, modern technology and even fashion (although i rarely ever dress with the times!). 

I'm not exactly spiritually inclined but i do love visiting ancient temples, primarily for their achitecture. I always tell people- "if i wasn't a doctor, i'd be either a journalist or an architect". Temple architecture is mind-boggling in many ways. One of the temples in India that has left me spell bound is the Brihadeshwara temple in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu. In terms of size and architecture, it is clearly a cut above the rest. Recently i even saw a documentary on the temple on Discovery channel- the serial host was quite obviously awed by the experience. There are  number of interesting facts about this monument.

• The temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Great Living Chola Temples" and has been built in the 11th cetury A.D.
  
• The 'Vimana' - or the temple tower - is 216 ft (66 m) high(about 70 meters) and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. The stones that make this mammooth object is believed to have been conveyed to the top by means of a inclined plane commencing from Sarapallam (scaffold-hollow), four miles north-east of the city!
  
• Rajaraja Cholan, the Great Chola king built the temple, also known as Big Temple. "In the twenty-fifth year of Rajaraja Cholan (A.D 1009-10) on the 257th day of the year the king handed over the copper pot for the finial at the top of the Vimana". It weighed about 235 lbs., and was overlaid with gold plate of weight of 292.5 Kalanju or nearly 35 lbs. It is believed that its shadow is never cast on the ground!
  
• There is a big statue of Nandi (sacred bull), carved out of a single rock, at the entrance measuring about 16 feet long and 13 feet high. The monolithic stone is said to come from the river bed of Narmada- in west India.
  
• There is a tradition that the Nandhi is growing in size with the progress of time. It was feared it might become too large for the Mandapam erected over it and a nail was driven into the back of it, and since, its size has remained stationery!!!
  
• The entire temple structure is made out of hard granite stones, a material sparsely available in Thanjavur area.
  
• The Sivalinga of Sri Brihadisvara is probably the grandest in existence. The tower over the shrine is named Dakshina-Meru after the abode of Lord Shiva at Kailasam, the Uttara-Meru.
  
• It is perhaps the only temple in the world which carries an exhaustive documentation ranging over almost a hundred long inscriptions engraved on the walls, pillars and podium, of the comtempory history of the times.
  
• The temple also sports a depiction in stone, of eighty one of the one hundred and eight karanas of Bharata Muni's Natya Sastra -  from whence the dance form Bharthnayam originated.
  
• The inscriptional data also abound in mention of the jewellery of the period; about sixty-six different types of ornaments and jewellery are listed with all the details.
  
• An axial and symmetrical geometry rules the temple layout.
  
• It is said that the the wish to build a temple like this is said to have occurred to Raja Raja while he stayed at "eezham" [today's Sri lanka] as a war head. He saw a lot of Buddha statues that were very tall, which would have made him wish to build a great temple to his cordial deity SHIVA.
  

If you haven't seen Tajore yet, then i'll highly recommend it especially if you are a design fanatic like me!