கைலாசநாதர் திருக்கோயில், காஞ்சிபுரம்
Kanchipuram is a city of temples. They are quite numerous here. This ancient city is one of the oldest cities in India and is well-known as a spiritual and religious centre for centuries. It once served as the capital of the Pallava kings who ruled from this region from the 6th century to the 9th century. Later it was a regional capital of the Cholas when they ruled over the Thondai Mandalam, as this region was called, from the 10th century to the 13th century. So, a lot of history here.
The Kailasanathar is perhaps the oldest temple in Kanchipuram and one of the earliest structural temples to be built in the Tamil country. It is a Sivan temple. It was built by the Pallava king Narasimhavarman II or Rajasimhan around 700 CE. It is built of sandstone which is not as durable as granite and is subject to erosion from wind and rain.
The vimanam is quite beautiful and is often claimed that this served as an inspiration for Rajarajan to build the massive vimanam in Thanjavur. There are beautiful sculptures throughout the complex. The lion motifs of the Pallavas are found in abundance.
It is an inactive or partially active temple these days. It is under the control of the Archeological Survey of India, the ASI and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It is located in Kanchipuram about 2 hours or 76 km southwest of Chennai.
Unfortunately I cannot find the photos of the vimanam and outer structures, I took during our visit, My photos do not do justice to the beauty of this temple. We have stuck to our own photos to abide by our strict rule to use only photos that we have taken ourselves. The reader is encouraged to do a brief search on the web to find more photos.
We visited in July 2010. We were based in Chennai.
Credits: Google Maps
Comentarios