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Raja Rajendra Chola's (and my) choices

It's fun to alliterate.  Be that as it may my adventure on India's eastern shore included a couple of pit stops at 1,000 year old massive temples - one called Gangaikonda in Cholapuram between Madurai and Tanjore and the other called Brihadeeshwara just on the northern outskirts of Tanjore.

Now one thing worth mentioning at the outset is I would not recommend anyone to actually take the trip I took. I had nothing better to do and so I chose to satisfy some innate curiosity about the ancient engineers and architects while hitting a couple of rail landmarks to satisfy the rail geek in me.  This is not your average traveler profile although I did run into a couple from Delhi that seem to have no predefined itinerary or agenda and were.wandering the south.

Thankfully I did not run into too many travelers perhaps as they decided that this weather was best left to lunatics.  Back to what the Cholla achieved.

So almost a 1,000 years ago these enterprising kings built complex superstructures using rocks dragged in from miles.away and decided to inscribe the walls with detailed.caligtaphy and sculptures
  In Brihadeeshwara there is also a long running paragraph in old Marathi (my native language) due to the fact that an erstwhile Maratha king took control after the Cholla had left the building and added some of their own real estate on campus.

The latter temple is a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE and resembles the Cambodian temple of Angkor wat.   However the place is neglected and other than sketchy guides is a vast compound where one can feel lost and overwhelmed.

I was lucky since a knowledgeable local fellow was assigned to me who showed me ample nuances of a very vast arena which made it enjoyable.  But beware those that visit in the middle of a summer day- those ancient sandstone floors will be hot.  Since removing footwear is the norm I was performing my own dance as my soles scalded while watching Shiva do his.

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