Divine Intervention

This post on the Cholas was'nt going to happen, except for a kind of divine intervention which I will write about later.

But first the Cholas. They were mighty kings of the south, who ruled around a thousand years ago. At its zenith, the influence of the Chola empire stretched all over India's east coast right up to Bihar and Bengal in the north. Besides whole of Sri Lanka and large part of south east Asia were under their control (They had a powerfull Navy). Though most of this conquering was done by Rajendra Chola, the foundations of this empire were laid by his father, Raja Raja Chola or Raja Raja the great.

But their military achievements do not impress me. I am impressed by the temples they built and more so by the exquisite bronze sculpture that, er, took shape under their reign. I have never actually seen the Brihadeshwara temple at Tanjavur (built by Raja Raja). But I was recently watching a discovery channel program ( while in Agartala, attending a friend's wedding reception - it seemed strange sitting in the north-east and watching a program about a temple which is comparatively next door to Bangalore) and they explained why it was such an architectural marvel. Built of solid granite transported from far, the 90m tall structure has two 36 ton granite blocks at the very top. No one knows for certain how those massive pieces of stone were transported so far up, but it is guessed that they built a miles long 6 degree incline and pulled/pushed the granite blocks up the slope using elephants.

While I was impressed by the huge temple structure, and the huger temple complex, the images the channel showed of the bronze sculptures of the Chola age simply took my breath away. Such perfection! One of those thank-god-i-am-alive-to-see-this experiences (even though only on TV). There was one image of Shiva and Parvati standing side by side, Shiva holding Parvati's hand, and their fingers intertwined. Uff! Just too beautiful for words.

I searched on the net for more images of Chola bronzes. The two pictures in my second post but last are examples. Some more are to be found here . The image of Shiva and Parvati together is there in the link, but it is'nt the one I saw on TV. (Also it is not as polished and shiny and nor is it a close up shot - don't blame me if you are not impressed). Also check out this beautiful image of Krishna dancing on Kaliya.


Sometimes I feel the Mughals hog too much of the historical, architectural and cultural-history scene in India.


And the Divine Intervention? It was a play I saw yesterday. "Flame of the Forest". It was about the 6th century Pallava king Mahendra Pallava. But about that, maybe some other day.