Chola
cōḻaThe imperial Tamil dynasty (c. 9th to 13th century) that built the great temple civilisation of the south, raised the towering vimana, and perfected the bronze image of which the Nataraja is the masterpiece.
Where this term appears
- The Chola Age and the Temple as Institution History
To read those walls is to realise that the greatest building the Cholas ever raised was not only a house of God.
- The History of Sanatana Dharma: A Timeline History
Stone temples rose under the Pallava, Chola and Chalukya kings, and the act of worship moved increasingly toward pūjā , the honouring of the image of the deity.
- The Tamil Stream: Sangam, Bhakti, and the Temple South History
The temple and the dancing god The third movement of the southern stream turned all this devotion into stone and bronze, under the imperial Cholas .
- How to Read a Murti Deities
…Vaishnava and Shakta traditions prescribe their images differently; a Chola bronze of the south follows conventions a northern stone carving does not; the same deity shifts in detail across region and century.
- Nagara, Dravida and Vesara: The Styles of the Hindu Temple Temples
The Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur, also called the Rajarajeshvara, was raised by the Chola emperor Rajaraja I and consecrated in 1010 CE, a date the inscriptions on the temple itself record.
- The Pancha Bhuta Sthalam: Five Element Temples Temples
The temple is among the largest in Tamil Nadu, raised over centuries by the Pallavas, the Cholas, and above all the kings of Vijayanagara, whose towering southern gateway is one of the tallest in India.
- Tirupati: The Temple of Venkateshwara Temples
After her come centuries of patronage from the Chola and Pandya dynasties, recorded on the temple's own walls.
- What is a Hindu Temple? Temples
…a temple, also called the Rajarajeshvara, at Thanjavur, raised by the Chola emperor Rajaraja I and consecrated in 1010 CE, its great vimana rising in a single ambitious mass.