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A thousand years ago, 1010 CE the Brihadishvara Temple at Thanjavur was consecrated by Rajaraja I Chola. This truly visionary monarch was the sponsor of what may be regarded as the greatest Hindu monument in the Tamil country. The genius of Rajaraja's architect, who conceived and executed this stupendous structural feat, and the multifarious talents of the numerous artists employed to work on its stone carvings and mural paintings, are still apparent today. The temple is the supreme achievement of the Chola era and indeed one of the greatest masterpieces of Hindu architecture and art in the whole of India.

While fully acknowledging Rajaraja’s crucial role in conceptualizing and executing the Thanjavur Temple, the volume also draws attention to the contributions of later Nayaka and Maratha patrons in the period spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. Thus was the ritual and artistic life of the monument preserved down to modern times.

All phases of the temple’s history are presented in this volume, which offers a comprehensive account of its architecture, sculptures, paintings, and historical records, as well as its ritual and cultural life. Bharath Ramamrutham’s splendid photographs are the most complete ever to be published. His images are supplemented by high quality digital images of the Chola-period murals in the passageway around the main shrine supplied by The Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle. Though now much eroded, these survive as the most important testament of Indian painting in the centuries after Ajanta.