Bharatiya Pragna - Dr. Th Chowdary

T he innumerable temples in our country
symbolise our cultural heritage and religious
tradition. They stand tall and big as a symbolic
representation of the timeless civilization of this
great land and they also signify the generosity &
spirit of those great kings & emperors who have
built them. Each and very temple, small or big,
has been standing for ages as a true testimony
for the great history of this nation. If we are still
able to relish the timeless grandeur of our heritage
and magnificence of our religion, despite the
assault by foreign invaders for more than thousand
years and despite their destruction of thousands
of temples and in spite of their nefarious
attempts to distort our glorious history, it is purely
because of the blessings of the Gods & Goddesses
residing in these temples, the noble qualities of
those kings & emperors who built them and the
benevolence of our ancestors who maintained
these temples.
A visit to a temple will give a complete
picture of the history of that particular place and
we can understand the beauty of art, architecture,
music, economy, administration, rule, law &
order, people and their living style and everything
prevailing then, based on the innumerable inscriptions
inscribed on the walls, pillars, ceilings, staircases
& even floors of the temple. Our ancient
rulers, who built these splendid temples, were so
42
Save The Sculptural Splendour From Sacrilege
B.R.Haran.
The great historical temple at Tanjavur is facing a threat. The writer calls for
preservation of all ancient arts, sculptures by the ASI.
thoughtful that they took so much of care to give
even minute details in the form of inscriptions.
Even while waging war with each other, they took
care not to destroy temples and kill cattle & civilians
and that is why even today, we are able to
know our ‘true’ history, culture & civilization.
Probably that could also be the reason for the
foreign invaders to focus more on destroying our
temples and distorting our history, so that, this
nation could be de-Hinduised and their religions
could be established.
Our temples and other structures stand
witness to the different architectural styles of the
various dynasties namely, the Gupthas, Mauryas,
Rajputs, Marathas, Nayaks, Cheras, Cholas,
Pandyas, Pallavas and many more. The Cholas
of Thanjavur were great conquerors, who have
extended their rule up to the Ganges in the north
and Srilanka, Burma, Malayan Peninsula and Java
& Sumatra Islands in the southeast, between the
ninth and twelfth centuries. They have been great
builders and constructed massive temples and
other structures, which now serve as finest specimens
of South-Indian architecture. One such
wonder is the Brihadiswarar Temple in Thanjavur
District of Tamilnadu
The Chola King Rajaraja (985-1012)
built this Brihadiswarar Temple, also known as
‘Big Temple’ due to its sheer size, and also named
November & December 2008 Bharatiya Pragna