Thanjai Periya Kovil, well-known as Brihadishvara Temple is located on the south bank of the Cauvery River in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. This historic temple is one of the largest Hindu temples and is the best example of fully realized Tamil architecture. The main God of this iconic temple is Lord Shiva. This temple is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Tamil Nadu. The historic temple was constructed by the Great Chola King Rajaraja Cholan

Here are some of the interesting facts about this Historic temple which you should know:


  • The temple was constructed in 1010, you can imagine this historic architecture is 1000 years old.
  • It took 34 years to build this wonderful temple which is recognised as UNESCO's world heritage Property in the year 1987.
  • Brihadishwara is a Sanskrit word (Brihat means Big and Ishvara means Lord), so it means Big shiva or Great Lord temple. This Brihadishvara temple is originally known as Peruvudiyar Kovil.
  • This historic temple is entirely built of granite, more than 130,000 tons of granite is been used to build this temple.
  • It's a strange fact that this temple is built using granite stone. All those stones were not found in the place of location of this temple. So you can imagine where these huge stones is been taken from?  
  • It is been said that over 1000 elephants are used to bring these granites to construct this temple.

  • The Brihadishwar temple is said to have the world's tallest temple tower and its kumbam (structure on top) weighs approximately 80 tons. It is still a mystery how Chola's lifted this 80 ton stone on top of this huge tower (vimanam).

  • Several underground passages connected the different temples of the Chola period, as of now many of these passages were sealed.
  • The temple is so designed that the temple towers (Vimanam) shadow never falls on the ground at noon during any part of the year.
  • There were a lot of workers involved in the construction of this historic temple and the name of these people was carved in the stones (Kalvettukal).

  • Nandhi (Sacred Bull) in the Brihadishwar temple is made up of a single stone and it weighs approximately 20 tons. It is the second-largest Nandi in India.  

  • The Brihadishwar temple is completely related to Tamil languages. The distance and height of the Brihadishwar temple are designed with the number of alphabets in Tamil.
    • The height of Lord Shiva (Shivalingam) is 12 feet which are equivalent to Tamil Vowels (Uyir Ezhuthukal).
    • The height of the Linga pedestal (Shiva Linga Peedam) is 18 feet which are equivalent to Tamil Consonants (Mei Ezhuthukal).     
    • The height of the Temple Gopuram is 216 feet which are equivalent to Tamil Consonant-vowels (Uyir-Mei Ezhuthukal).
    • The distance between the Lord shive (Shivalingam) and the Nandhi is 247 feet which are equivalent to the total number of characters in Tamil.  
  • The temple contains much beautiful fresco painting and these paintings along with the historic structure has survived six recorded earthquakes and a major fire, but the temple stands still without any damages.

  • In April 1954, the Reserve Bank of India had released a ₹ 1000 note with a panoramic view of Brihadishwar Temple.

  • In 2010, the Reserve Bank of India released a ₹ 5 coin with a view of the Brihadishwar temple.

  • On 26 September 2010, ₹ 5 postage stamp was released by India post featuring the 216-feet ain't temple tower (Raja Gopuram).