Origin from 1010
A hundred and sixty years after King Rakai Pikatan dedicated the Prambanan temple to Shiva on Java in 850, and a little over a century before the god king Suryavarman II raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, both already recorded here, South India's Chola dynasty raised the grandest Shaivite temple its architects had yet attempted. Rajaraja I, who had already extended Chola naval power against Sri Lanka and the Maldives, built a granite temple to Shiva at his capital, Thanjavur, dedicating it in his nineteenth regnal year, corresponding to 1009 to 1010 CE, and naming it Rajarajesvaram, the temple of Rajaraja's lord, after himself. Its vimana tower rises two hundred and sixteen feet, capped by a single eighty ton block of granite, and its walls carry Rajaraja's own inscriptions cataloguing the temple's staff, its endowed lands, and the gold, jewels and textiles given for its rites in more documented detail than any other temple of its age has preserved. Still an active site of worship today, the temple was inscribed by UNESCO in 1987 as the centerpiece of the Great Living Chola Temples, alongside the later Chola temples at Gangaikondacholapuram and Darasuram, testifying to a dynasty whose reach carried Hindu temple building as far as the Southeast Asian courts already recorded on this timeline.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks Rajaraja I, the Chola emperor, dedicating the Rajarajesvaram, known today as the Brihadeeswarar Temple, at Thanjavur in his nineteenth regnal year, corresponding to 1009 to 1010 CE, a milestone between Rakai Pikatan dedicating the Prambanan temple to Shiva on Java in 850, already recorded here, and Suryavarman II raising Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Angkor Wat directly: "the god king Suryavarman II raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, both already recorded here, South India's Chola dynasty raised the grandest Shaivite temple its architects..."
This source names Cambodia directly: "raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, both already recorded here, South India's Chola dynasty raised the grandest Shaivite temple its architects had yet attempted."
This source names Maldives directly: "naval power against Sri Lanka and the Maldives, built a granite temple to Shiva at his capital, Thanjavur, dedicating it in his nineteenth regnal year, corresponding to 1009 to 1010 CE, and naming..."
This source names Prambanan directly: "after King Rakai Pikatan dedicated the Prambanan temple to Shiva on Java in 850, and a little over a century before the god king Suryavarman II raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around..."
This source names Suryavarman II directly: "over a century before the god king Suryavarman II raised Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple in Cambodia around 1113, both already recorded here, South India's Chola dynasty raised the grandest Shaivite..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a milestone in Hinduism's temple building tradition between Rakai Pikatan dedicating the Prambanan temple to Shiva in 850 and Suryavarman II raising Angkor Wat as a Hindu temple around 1113, both already recorded here: Rajaraja I dedicating the Rajarajesvaram, the Brihadeeswarar Temple, at Thanjavur in his nineteenth regnal year, 1009 to 1010 CE.
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