dear freinds, i was visiting a few temples in the tanjore region. i found none of them were as big as chidambaram in area wise. i think even srirangam temple (excluding the town portion) would be smaller than chidambaram. the madurai temple reference states it is 45 acres. chidambaram is 40 acres. in the wikipedia search all other temples are smaller than these two temple complexes.
but i do not have references for thiruvidaimarudhoor or mannargudi temples.
can i tell the visitors to chidambaram that it is the second largest in TN.
Dr. Nagaswamy - in his recent Power point progm re ANKURWATT conducted for Dr. Padhma Surbmaniam's Nrithyodhaya - (which me & Vijay attended ) introduced a Thailand student - who follows Buddhism by faith.
Showed us a photo of Ram - and asked for who it was/
Most of us replied RAM.
Asked the Thailand Student. HE REVERENTLY REPLIED :: SRI RAM !!
( Shree Vaishnavites .. reminded me of this )
The largest Temple is undoubtedly SRIRANGAM in TN.
Re Chidambaram, we have to compare :: THIRUVARUR THIRUVANAIKKOIL and MADURAI .. also.
Saying is that Thiruvarur Koil 5 Veli (Kamalalayam) Kulam 5 Veli !!
Since you raised this subject, will check with some more sources - including HRCE and mail inputs.
FYI, The Same buddhist Thailand guy sung a Tamil Shiva poem at Dr. Nagasamy's presentation on this same Ankor watt organised by Prof. Swaminathan's Tamil Heritage group. He got a very good applause from the audience, because many of us sitting there know only two or three lines of that poem!
We all missed that teaching of Gurukulam. I remember my grandfather now, when we were small kids he used to tell us about his thinnai school and writing on the sand etc.
On the otherside many people could not have gained literacy like today!