Place · Chola temple · India
Darasuram Airavatesvara
The third of the Great Living Chola Temples at Darasuram in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, built by Rajaraja II around 1166 CE — a hundred-and-fifty years after Thanjavur Brihadishvara and much more elaborate in its carving. The Airavateshvara temple is dedicated to Shiva as the god whom Airavata (Indra's elephant) worshipped. Its 24-metre vimana is smaller than Thanjavur's but the plinth is wrapped in a continuous relief of mythological scenes, dancers and musicians, with the horse-drawn chariot stone mandapa in front — the forerunner of the Hampi stone chariot. UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987 as the third Great Living Chola Temple.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Patron dynasty
- Chola
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 10.949, 79.356
Connections (1)
- Teaching lineageGangaikondacholapuram
Darasuram's Airavateshvara is the third of the Great Living Chola Temples, built by Rajaraja II about a century and a half after Gangaikondacholapuram, and it elaborates what the first two established rather than extending it — smaller, with a front mandapa shaped as a chariot on stone wheels and miniature friezes covering the base. The imperial scale has gone and the carving has taken over, which is what happens to the style at the end.
On these journeys
Sources
Great Living Chola Temples — UNESCO
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