CHENNAI: The towering Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur, a symbol of classic South Indian temple architecture revered by historians and the public alike, can now be studied in detail in an exclusive exhibition ‘Brhadisvara: The Monument and the Living tradition’. Put together by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), the eight-day exhibition, which was launched on Sunday, will give people a chance to look at the details of the temple’s architecture, sculpture, paintings and symbolism.
The result of a decade of research by the IGNCA, the exhibition has detailed plans and sections of the temple. Like a virtual tour, the visitors can see photographs of the sculptures and paintings, representation of the female form, jewellery and clothes along with the location, where they appear in the temple.
“The temple was such a masterpiece. The entire structure, which was built with ball-and-socket arrangement without cement, has now stood over a 1000 years. And today’s construction sees incidents like the Moulivakkam disaster,” said N Gopalaswami, former chief election commissioner, and chairman of Kalakshetra Foundation, who inaugurated the exhibition. Talking about the worries of damage that could be caused to the temple because of frequent flying in the nearby airfield, he hoped that such matters could be taken care of.
The temple is also famous for inscriptions, which run through the entire colonnade around the precincts.
Speaking at the inauguration, Chitra Madhavan, historian and temple expert said, “The inscriptions can tell us the history of the complex, which we would never know otherwise. Although the main temple was built by the Chola dynasty, several structures in the complex were added by the successive dynasties like the Nayaks and the Pandyas.”
Historian Pradeep Chakravarty pointed out how this is the only temple, which shows the Chola style of painting.
“These paintings are done in the wet fresco technique, which means a zero -error margin. The paintings were not just meant for passive viewing, but to feel one with the painting,” he said.
The exhibition is on till January 25 at the TAG Centre, Alwarpet.