I think

Brighadeeshwara Temple

This year marks the 1000th year of the Brighadeeshwara temple in Tanjavur. It was built in 1010 by a Chozha king called Raja Raja Chozhan, it stands 216-feet tall, apparently visible from any part of the town - I don't think that is true anymore with the high rises, but I am sure 20 years earlier, it would have indeed been so.

I visited this temple when I was 10 years old, and remember being awed by its splendour.  The memories are rather fuzzy now, I only remember small snippets like the huge nandhi, an idol of a "very European looking man with a hat" on the tower - remember, this was the eleventh century A.D. much before the British came to India. The more superstitious believe that the builders had a future vision of Europeans visiting, but I suspect there must have been trade with the West, and that's how the idol came about.

The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva.  Unlinke other temples in South India that come under the Department of Religious works of the State Government, this temple is maintained by the Archeological Survey of India. It is also part of Unesco's Great Living Chola Temples.

The reason for the post is this.  This weekend  will be a celebration of the thousand years of the temple.  Renouned Bharathnatyam danseuse, Ms. Padma Subramaniam has choreographed a dance, which will be performed by ONE THOUSAND dancers inside the temple.  Why a dance-celebration? Maybe because, in 1956, sculptures of 108 dance poses were discovered inside the first tier of the tower.   General public are not allowed inside the temple to watch the show thanks to the CM attending the function and the tight security measures involved. But it seems, that it will be aired on one or more of the local Tamil channels, live.  Given the setting, I am sure it will be a grand event.

We do not have a television at home. So, if anyone knows of a website that might air it live or later, please let me know.

Read more about the event here.

There is a 360 degree view of the temple here.  It takes some time to load. (To be honest, it did not load at all at my system, because I had some outdated flash software or something, but I have seen the 360 picture of the Meenakshi temple in the past, and this can only look grander, if and when it loads)

 Update:

Source: The Hindu

 

 

 

The Grand Flu and a Birthday

When kiddo returned from school on Thursday complaining of body ache, little did I imagine that she would have to fight a 103 the next day.  Influenza in all its darned glory.  The poor child was a rag doll most of yesterday, and for a brief two minutes drove me to total and utter panic by looking at me with glazed eyes and no sign of recognition, which I later attributed to the strong antipyretic + lack of nourishment.   Sigh, my heart is still in my mouth.

But yes, thank you, she is much better today.  Low grade fever  Mild cold. Spirits good.  She even drew a potrait of the birthday boy and his family. So, I guess it is only a matter of a day or two before the flu flees (not to the rest of the family, I hope).

And for all my self-proclaimed mageinocophobia, I didn't do badly myself.

With the illness-related mental preoccupation, I had forgotten to buy the pillayar and paraphernalia yesterday.  Our friends (thanks S5) kindly bought the pillayar for us.  However, this time, pillayar will have to do without his umbrella, arugampul and erukkam maalai. I hope the yummy kozakkattai made up for it.

Happy Birthday Pillayar.