History of Architecture
History of Architecture
History of Architecture
TOWERS
The temple has nine gateway towers. Four of these gateway towers or gopuras each with 7 storeys facing the cardinal directions. The tower is of 50m in high. The north and the south is 49m high each. The gopurams were carved with 108 classical dancing postures of Nataraja.
EASTERN TOWER
It was constructed by pallava king koperunsingam in the 12th century. It maintains the original structure of embedded miniature shrines while the other 3 have representations of deities and mythological scenes. Idols of pachaiappa mudaliar and his wife iyalammal have been sculptured in eastern gopuram.
WESTERN TOWER
It was built by chola kings around 1150 and there is no reliable evidence on the construction. Western gopuram is the earliest and smallest of the other four gopurams.
the sculpture shows goddess fighting the buffalo demon and warlike skanda astride his peacock.
NORTHERN TOWER
It was build by the king krishnadevaraya a king of vijanagara dynasty around 1300AD the 16th century. The gopurams have the rectangular base with granite representations of various deities in the niches. The seven tapering upper storeys are made of bricks and decorated with lime work.
SOUTHERN TOWER
Southern gopuram is also known as sokkaseeyan thirunilai ezhugopuram. It was constructed by the pandya king. It was identified from the presence of dynastys fish emblem sculptured on the ceiling. The pandyas sculptured two fishes facing each other when they completed gopuras(and left it with fish, in case it was incompletee.
VIEW OF TEMPLE
EAST RAJAGOPURAM
A tier constructed by maravarman sundarapandiyan the pandya king in 1216-1238 The tower is 153.3ft in high& the base measurement 111.3ft by 65.6 ft
WEST RAJAGOPURAM
It was constructed by the king parakrama pandian between 1315 and 1347. Its height 154.6ft of base length 101ft and width 63.6ft. It has 1124 sculptures of mythological figures are seen.
NORTH RAJAGOPURAM
This tower is named as tower without roof. The construction was started by krishnaveerappanikar in(1564-1572). This was completed by amaravati pudur vayinagaram nagappa chetti in 1878. This was remain unfinished for number of years and was therefore known as mottai gopuram meaning tower without roof.
SOUTH TOWER
SOUTH RAJAGOPURAM
Constructed by siramalai seventhi murthy chettiyar in 1559 It is the tallest of the temple towers measuring 160.9ft in high the base area of 100ft x67ft 1511 mythological figures are seen.