One arc, three temples,
a hundred and sixty years.
Five articles tracing the Chola architectural arc from the imperial grandeur of Brihadeeswara through the lyric refinement of Airavatesvara — the three UNESCO Great Living Chola Temples, compared.
Chola Circuit — overview
UNESCO's 1987 inscription named only Brihadeeswara. Seventeen years later, in 2004, the listing was extended to include two more Chola temples within a 90-minute drive of Thanjavur — Gangaikonda Cholapuram, finished by Rajendra Chola I in 1035, and Airavatesvara at Darasuram, completed under Rajaraja II in 1166. Together the three are the "Great Living Chola Temples".
The interest of the group, for anyone interested in temple architecture, is that the three temples are by the same dynasty across a hundred-and-sixty-year window. They permit the same comparative exercise the great Romanesque-to-Gothic French cathedrals do: a single tradition, traceably, evolving. This pillar collects the comparative articles that make that arc visible.