From the 5th to the 9th century a spectrum of Hindu temple styles continued to develop over the rule of the Chalukya era as evidenced in Aihole, Badami and Pattadakal, and then with the Pallava era as witnessed at Mamallapuram and other monuments. Thereafter Cholas emerged as the dominant dynasty between 850 and 1280 CE. More emphasis was placed on securing their geopolitical boundaries and less emphasis on architecture in the early Chola period. In the 10th century, features such as the multifaceted columns with planned square capitals appeared within the Chola empire. This, George Michell states, signaled the beginning of the new style of Chola.This South Indian style is most thoroughly realized in both scale and detail in the Brihadeshvara temple designed by the Chola king Rajaraja I between 1003 and 1010.
Along with its gopurams, the main temple is from the early 11th century. In the next 1,000 years the temple also saw additions, renovations, and repairs. Damage was caused by the raids and wars, particularly between Muslim Sultans who controlled Madurai and Hindu kings who controlled Thanjavur. These were repaired by Hindu dynasties who regained power. In some cases, by ordering new murals on top of older ones, the rulers tried to renovate the temple with faded paintings.In other cases the addition of shrines was sponsored. Kartikeya (Murugan), Parvati (Amman), and Nandi 's significant shrines are from the Nayaka era of the 16th and 17th centuries. Similarly later the shrine of Dakshinamurti was built.
The plan and development of the temple at Brihadeshvara uses the rules of axial and symmetrical geometry. It is known as a large temple Perunkoil constructed on a higher platform of natural or man-made mounds. The temple complex is a rectangle that is nearly two stacked squares, spanning 240.79 meters east to west and 121.92 meters (400.0 ft) north to south. There are five main sections in this space: the sanctuary with the towering superstructure (sri vimana), the Nandi hall in front (Nandi-mandapam) and between them the main community hall the large gathering hall (mahamandapam) and the pavilion connecting the great hall to the sanctum (ardhamandapam).
The temple complex includes in its spacious courtyard a wide pillared and protected veranda (prakara), with a perimeter of around 450 meters (1.480 ft) for circumambulation. There are two walls of enclosure outside this pillared veranda, the outer one being protective and added in 1777 CE by the French colonial powers with gun-holes with the temple acting as an arsenal. They made the outer wall high and insulated the complex area of the temple. The original principal gopuram or gateway, which is vaulted tank, is on its east end. It is less than half the size of the vimana of the principal temple.After the 11th century, additional structures were added to the original temple, such as a mandapa at its northeastern corner and additional gopurams at its perimeters to allow people to enter and leave from multiple locations. Some of the shrines and structures were added before the beginning of the colonial era during the Pandya, Nayaka, Vijayanagara, and Maratha era and these builders respected the original plans and rules of symmetry. Inside the original temple courtyard, there are two major shrines, one for Kartikeya and one for Parvati, along with the main sanctum and the Nandi-mandapam. There are additional smaller shrines at the complex.
The temple of Brihadisvara continued South India 's Hindu temple practices by adopting architectural and decorative elements but its size greatly surpassed the temples constructed before the 11th century. Architects and craftsmen of the Chola era innovated the expertise to scale up and build, especially with heavy stone, and to achieve the towering vimana, 63.4 meters high.
The temple faces east, and was once surrounded by a water moat. That was filled in up. Now the fortified wall runs around that moat. The two walls have embellished gateways called gopurams. These are crafted from a stone entablature and show. The east side of the two gateways is. The first is called the Keralantakan tiruvasal which means the Keralantakan's "sacred gate." The word Keralantakan was king Rajaraja's surname which built it. The inner courtyard gopuram named the Rajarajan tiruvasal is about 100 meters ahead. This is more decorated than the Keralantakan tiruvasal, such as narrating scenes from the Puranas and other Hindu texts with its adhishthanam relief work.The inner eastern gopuram leads to a vast courtyard, in which cardinal directions are all signed to the east-west and north-west. The complex can be entered either through a five-story gopuram on one axis or through a smaller freestanding gopuram with a second access directly to the huge main quadrangle. The main entrance gopuram is 30 m above sea level, smaller than the vimana.
In the center of this courtyard is the main temple-related monuments and the great tower. There are smaller shrines around the main temple which is dedicated to Shiva, most of which are axially aligned. These are dedicated to his consort Parvati, his sons Subrahmanya and Ganesha, Nandi, Varahi, Karuvur deva, Chandeshvara, and Nataraja. The Nandi mandapam has a monolithic bull in front of the sanctum. Between them there are stairs leading to a columned porch and a gathering hall for the community, then an inner mandapa connecting to the pradakshina patha, or circumambulation.The Nandi facing the mukh-mandapam weighs about 25 tons. It consists of a single stone and is about 2 m tall, 6 m long and 2,5 m wide. Nandi 's image is monolithic, and is one of the country's largest.
The temple has an underside layer of Chola frescoes along the circumambulatory pathway on the sanctum walls. The painters used natural pigments, which they infused into the layer of wet calcareous as it was set in. The Chola frescoes were largely about themes of Shaivism. In the 2000s, those have been restored. The total area of Chola fresco is about 670 square meters, about 112 square meters of which had been uncovered since 2010 in a method that preserves both paintings, a technique developed by India's Archeological Survey.According to Balasubrahmanyam, the majority of frescoes are linked to Shiva, but the Chola frescoes from the 11th century also depict Vishnu, Durga and others, as well as scenes of Chola royalty, courtship and common life.
At Thanjavur, the Brihadishvara temple is the site of annual dance festivals around the Mahashivratri, around February. In this Brahan Natyanjali festival, major classical Indian dance form artists as well as regional teams perform their repertoire over 10 days.
The temple is currently managed and administered by the Thanjavur Maratha royal family head Babaji Bhonsle. He serves as the hereditary trustee of the Devasthanam palace which continues to manage 88 temples of Chola including the temple of Brihadeeswara. Tamil groups have unsuccessfully petitioned the government of Tamil Nadu to revoke those rights because it is not of Chola or Tamil lineage. Babaji Bhonsle is also not the legal heir to the Maratha kings of Thanjavur, according to one of the protesters, who also happens to be the coordinator of the Big Temple Rights Retrieval Committee.