The Chola century,
and the temple it left.
Seven articles covering the dynasty that built the Big Temple, the emperor who commissioned it, the construction period, the inscriptions on its base wall, and the modern UNESCO recognition.
History — overview
The Chola dynasty is the longest-attested ruling lineage in Indian history — its earliest mentions are in the Tamil Sangam corpus, four hundred years before the Christian era, and its last legitimate king was defeated in 1279 CE. But the dynasty that interests us here is a specific moment within that long arc: the imperial Cholas of the tenth and eleventh centuries, who ran the largest and most administratively articulate state ever assembled in southern India.
Their capital was Thanjavur. Their treasury, their navy, their inscribed bureaucracy and their imperial cult all converged on a single building, finished in 1010 CE, which is still the largest object on the city's skyline. The articles in this pillar cover the people who built it, the years that produced it, and the institutions that have preserved it since.