Have you visited these three 10th century Chola temples in Pondicherry ?

Have you visited these three 10th century Chola temples in Pondicherry ?

Do you know that Pondicherry boasts of some fine Chola temples that predate even the three Great Living Chola Temples of Thanjavur, Darasuram and Gangai Konda Cholapuram?

 

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This year the Pondicherry Heritage Festival, in its fourth edition, had scheduled tours of the ancient temples at Bahour and Thirubhuvanai. These temples were all built in the 10th century A.D . Taking a walk around any of these temples, you can spot plenty of sculptures, and inscriptions on stone which talk of the way of life in the Chola era during the 10th century- including taxation, land measurement, protection of lakes and governance. These were all explained to participants who joined the 3 temple tour lead by Venkatasubramanian from the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) on Sunday.

While Thirubhuvanai is the modern industrial and manufacturing hub of Puducherry, these three temples, located in close proximity to each other, can take you right back to the 10th century.

 

Stone inscriptions at Thirubhuvanai even point to the existence of a Sanskrit University in the period. All three temples are protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India.

 

A tour of Bahour and a therukoothu performance at the Moolanathaswamy temple on February 18, will bring the festival to a close.

PHF 2018 is organised by the People for Pondicherry’s Heritage, INTACH, and PondyCAN. PondyLive is the online media partner.

 

Images: SouSuBe Pictures