In the twenty-fifth year of Rajaraja Cholan (A.D 1009-10) on the 257th day of the year the king handed over the copper pot for the finial at the top of the Vimana". It weighed about 235 lbs., and was overlaid with gold plate of the weight of 292.5 Kalanju or nearly 35 lbs
But chanced on this interesting article - note for special reference to
1. ( pg 44) the kalasam - sembu ( being measured in palams).. watch the use of the word surukira...and the formed alloy then being measured in the same unit of measure as other gold items ( kalanchu by adal vallan a measuring stone) ...
>>>>>>>>>>>but is this interpretastion correct, because the word immdly following surukira is tagadu palapon which was measured by .... also how come there would be a such a reduction in weight when an alloy is formed???
2. (pg 45) rrc special place for his sister
naam koduthanavum, akkan koduthanavum, matrum kuduthar koduthanavum...
what i gave, what sister gave and what was given by others....
3. ( pg 47) the battle booty - reference to rrc gifting war loot - post chera, pandya and also chalukya ...
2. ( pg 45/46)rrc exhibiting part of his wealth...exhibition?? his treasury - thevar pandarathei...
3. ( pg 44) one detail of a large idol - kolgai devar?? anyone can throw light on this. must hv been carried away by kafur or melted...
4. sources of gold - not only as war booty but also from taxes and duties.
Do you think we can estimate? yes we can for the structure standing above ground level but below ground level it is very difficult unless you excavate it or else need to use some magnetic/sound waves equipments..becuase of this beautiful temple many mountains would have disappeared in thanjavur-thiruchirappalli region..?! How much qty. of stone got wasted while making shapes?? How many human beings could have became slaves during the construction? We talk about only RRC but we should try to know how many hands involved in the construction of this temple, If you have reference on this kindly let me know..
Yes you are correct! Just now I read one article written by suganya in Varalaaru.com. There mentioned Mr. Satish name only which I could recognise also the name of Mr. Kudavoil... However I think its not open to the public, may be we can see that with some special permission..
I remember reading in Balakumaran's Udaiyar, that the foundation is not ver deep, about 15 - 20 feet only, but the superstructure load is spread over a very large area. He must have got this from some sources; perhaps ref can be found in his books.
Even today, you can see large granite pillars 3 feet square and 40 to 60 feet tall above ground level in the unfinished towers (north and west sides) of Srirangam temple. What has gone below the ground is anyone's guess.
Before the Rajagopuram was built in 70s, some studies were done to evaluate the foundation and load bearing capacity of the existing mandapam for deciding the height. As this is recent, information may be available.
If I remember right, Dr.Rajavelu of ASI once told our group that the foundation of big temple is just 6 feet...they did drill and test it out and they were astonished to figure out that its just 6 feet.
SPS can throw more light on this and correct me if I am wrong.
Hi the big temple by itself is a very big achievemnet 1000 years back. but a lot of myths around it seem to add magical prowess to it and its architects.
i am sure the big temple stands because its design was well done
as rahul says in the absence of a tie- beam a sort of belt at the base the load cannot be distributed so well.
1000 years is a long time to stand and i am sure the best of foundations was given .certainly not shallow ones.
Does this mean another nail in the coffin of the aryan invasion theory?
(We can therefore conclude that the Harappans and the Neolithic people of Tamil country spoke the same language, namely Dravidian. It is recorded that the Neolithic people of South India were in contact with the Late Harappan or post -Harappan people of the Deccan. It is known that gold for the ornaments found at Mohenjodaro came from the Kolar gold fields in Karnataka. Finally, reference can be made to the traditional accounts in old Tamil literature tracing the origin of the Velir cheiftains to migration from the Saurashtra region of Gujarat which was at that time part of the Harappan civilization. )
Technically speeking, the foundation for the big temple should be a block type foundation, that may be a single big stone used as a foundation or many pieces of stones binded with lime mortar ( This is very stronger than the concrete but the settlement time is more). Also I think the foundation for the vimanam and other mandapams are seperate. When I was disucussing this matter with my friend who is a Geotechnical Engineer, he said one of the professor from soil mechnics dept, Anna Univ. had already studied the foundation of big temple to find the solution for the problem of differential settlement, if possible I will try to get the paper. According to that study the soil in that area is clayey soil so there is a problem of settlement. But using tie-beams in the stone foundation is impossible unless we cut out the beam from a single massive rock.