30/09/2022
The roof of Chitrambalam Is made of 21600 gold plates, inscribed with Panchakshara mantra, held together with 72000 nails. As per Yogic philosophy, humans take 21600 breaths in a day and the prana is spread through the human body through 72000 nadi or veins. -
The golden roof was made possible by the grace of the Chola king, Parantaka in the 10th century. Parantaka described himself as the ‘bee at the lotus feet of Lord Shiva’ in the inscriptions. The temple was the coronation temple of the Cholas.
The most characteristic gopuram of the Pandyan style is perhaps the eastern gopuram of the Chidambaram temple which was built around 1250.
This is already a tall structure: 41 m in height. Like the temples of older styles it also has a rectangular floor plan. This temple includes a high and wide opening that allows access to the patio and a pyramidal roof with rectilinear edges that comprises seven “levels” similar to those of the vimana already described in previous essays. This pyramidal roof is crowned by a semi-cylinder whose existence was also documented before in the 8th century (in the Kailasanathar temple in Kanchipuram).
The Chidambaram Nataraja temple dedicated to Nataraja (Shiva as the lord of dance) is located in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India.
The present temple was built in the 10th century when Chidambaram was the capital of the Chola dynasty, making it one of the oldest surviving active temple complexes in South India. Most of the temple’s surviving plan, architecture and structure is from the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
The temple has nine major gopuram gateways connecting the various courtyards. Four of these facing the East, South, West and North are huge and colorful, visible from afar, thus serving as a symbolic and convenient landmark for pilgrims. Pictured here is the eastern gopuram of the temple complex.
