The encyclopedia Britannica describes the Tamil speaking people as 'perhaps the greatest temple builders in the world'.  It describes the mighty BIG TEMPLE in Thanjavur, conceived by the Emperor Raja Raja Cholan and built by his master architects, as the "grandest temple in India".  Unfortunately the temple has gained fame within he state but it grandeur is still not well known to the rest of the world.  The tower is built in the pure Dravidan style and raises to a height of 66meters.  A massive, monolithic bull, chiseled out of a single rock - bigest in the state.  A recent discovery made in the inner court yard of the temple has delighted connoisseurs of art-fresco paintings of the Chola period, similar to those in the Ajantha Caves and Sigiria in Sri Lanka. 

As you approach the city, the great Big Temple with its lofty tower, is a wonderful object, impressive and graceful.  It's base measures eighty feet square and the pyramid raises fourteen stories to the height of two hundred feet.  The top stone is a huge monolith, beautifully carved and weighing eighty tones.  The court are not covered over as any other temples in South India, but are open to light and air and within the precincts is a open square six hundred feet by two hundred.  Here is the colossal Stone bull Nandhi, fifteen feet long and twelve feet high, in a couching posture.  It rest upon a platform which you ascend by twelve steps, and has over it a large canopy supported by granite pillars. 

This bull, sacred to Lord Shiva, faces the magnificent temple, an oblong building of red sand stone, with the huge tower raising nobly over the shrine. Further on the left, but within the enclosure, is another but much smaller shrine, of beautifully carved stone, and cloisters surround the court, covered with coarse pictures of heroes of those days. To the right, within the court, is the temple of SUBRAMANYA "as exquisite a piece of decorative architecture, as is to be found in the whole India". To steps up to its entrance are supported by small carved elephants with men, in singular altitudes, sitting on or falling from their trunks.

If you can go back to those days, the Thanjavur temple is not just an architectural monument, it is a happening, an inspiration gone but still testifying to the greatness of the dynastic power and the devotion of the people.  It is good not to remember that how much of the rice production and of the military loot were required for this construction.

This Big Temple was completed in 1010 AD (aprx 1000 years ago) with the fitting of an 80 tones monolith on the top of the spire, which is 60.96 meters high. 

The successful completion of 1000 years of the construction of the architectural marvel and world heritage site, ‘Brahadeeswara Temple' popularly known as ‘BIG TEMPLE' by King Raja Raja Cholan, will be celebrated in a grand manner in Thanjavur shortly. A decision to this effect was taken during the advisory committee meeting convened by the District Administration to chalk out the plans to commemorate the special occasion.

According to the Archaeology survey of India (ASI) sources, the construction of the temple - the structural marvel - started in 1006 AD and was completed in 1010 AD. The related festival of the Big Temple is now due in October. So the District administration has now decided to celebrate the valediction of 1000 years of the construction of the Big Temple for a period of one week by June of July before the onset of the monsoon. The local administration decided, to recommend to the Government, to release the special postal stamp, coins and currency notes bearing the emblem of Big Temple. The District Administration would organize a photo exhibition, seminar, debate on the Big Temple and the history of Emperor Raja Raja Cholan on this occasion.