in 1994 i went to this temple. when i reached there , i asked one of the shops selling flowers "where is the temple?". there were no resturants or hotels. only a priest was accepting pilgrims from distant places in his house as guest(it was advertised in small wooden plank).
the temple was so small and there were very few visitors. it was at the best in an area of our small amman temples in our tanjore district villages. i was upset by its small size. same was true with udupi krishnan temple. i remember only the shringeri saradha peedam temple was grandiose enough like tanjore.
im glad now the mookambika temple has good extra constructions and prakarams. even the pilgrims number seem to have increased now( mostly keralits and coimbatore peoples).
tanjore people's addiction with grandiose constructions is phenomenal and even that persists among tanjore people settled in australia and america. once i asked a pious tamilian from america about his temple worshiping practice. he said he worship only srirangam because he likes the "sheer size of the temple".
It is not only in Thajavur but it is a practice of the Tamizh Culture to always Thinking Big and there are lots of examples as below: 1. Sri Ekambaranathar Temple In Kanchipuram 2. Sri Kailasanathar Temple inKanchipuram 3. Srirangam Temple 4. Thiruvanikal 5. Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple 6. Rameswaram Ramanathaswamy Temple 7. Srivilliputtur Sri Andal Temple 8. Srivilliputtur Sri Vaidhyanatha Swamy Temple 9. Sri Nellaiappar Temple - Tirunelveli 10. Sri Tiruchendur Muruga temple 11. Suchindram Temple Generallyall the Great Kingdoms which ruled Tamilnadu , Pallava, Chera , Chozha ,Pandiya'sand later part Madurai Nayakkarsalways think big and built big temples.
Theremay be lots of big temples in the Kongu region also , still all the temples which are built on those days are really great.
You make important observations. Large temples appear to be present only in Tamil Nadu. Temples in the adjoining states tend to be smaller, most of them any way. Is this because of the Chola/Pallava tradition ? Or, it is something else. Would appreciate comments from scholars who have studied temples in depth. Thanks.
May I just say that Khajuraho's Kandariya Mahadeo, Bhubaneshwar's Lingaraj, and Puri's Jagannatha are all very large. These to me [minus Puri] make up the great triumvirate of India's greatest ancient temples -- all dedicated to Lord Shiva, interestingly. If Konark were intact, it would make the 4th. kathie
Hi, Yes, it is true that we find big temples usually in Tamilnadu however many of these temple were extended conrinuously in later times. Best examples are erecting gopurams and compound walls by succeeding dynasties. Lingraj and Konark temples in Odhisa are pretty large in proportions. Konark, Lakshmana and Kandariya Mahadeva also big, though not as big as Brihadeshvara.
My original query was comparison to adjacent regions. My logic being that culturally, linguistically and religiously the adjacent regions - Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra - are fairly close. Yet large temple building tradition has not been wide spread. Granted that what we see now is a multi-dynastic contribution. Why did not a similar building/addition effort take place in the adjacent regions. Orissa lies a bit farther; correct me if this is not the case. Some food for thought.
Hi Sankar - You appear to be saying that AP and Karnataka were dysfunctional dynasties due to external threat stress much earlier than TN. Thanks. Raj Mutharasan
TN had a continuous dynasties inclined to Temple building except for 60 year before Vijayanagar and after 18th.
But still - Tanjore Marathas in 19th and Nagarathars in late 19th and early-mid 20th maintained, renovated temples.
AP and Karnataka have many temples, which are equal in size to many of the padal petra sthalams -like Mahanandi, Simhachalam, Draksharamam , Nanjankood, somnathpur etc.
the grandness of TV malai, Kanchi, Chidmabaram, Madurai, Srirangam is due to continuous patronage.