Dear Sir/Madam I must congratulate you on the great programme on one of the best man made structures built a 1000 years ago. It was a great tribute to Raja Raja Chola the Great. The visuals were breathtaking however I would like to point out a few errors in the programme. First not all the complexes shown were built by the RRC the great. The visuals kept changing from The Thnajavur Brahadeeswara temple to Sri rangam to Gangaikonda cholapuram etc. RajaRaja built only one magnum opus thats in Thanjavur.The one in Gangai konda chola puram was built by his son who bettered his fathers achievements by invading malaysia,burma and present day indonesia(the great srivijaya empire).He also marched upto Ganges and bengal hence got the title Gangaikonda chola and built a city and temple to commomorate his victory.Interestingly he had fought more wars and won more laurels than his father however his temple is slightly smaller than the one in Thanjavur as a tribute to his father. It was said in the programme that RRC built the temple to get rid of his sins of war. May I point out that according to Hindu Dharma The Kings are Kshathriyas are supposed to kill and thats their right.The same RRC did not kill brahmins who had commited treason and assasinated his brother the crown prince but confistigated their property and evicted them from his country.So the myth he built his temple to wash his hands off the blood is wrong.If that was the case his son Rajendra and kulothunga chola must have built even bigger temples. The narattor gave credit to all south indian temples to RRC which is wrong The Top dome and the Platform have been proven to multiple stones amalgamated together. The painting said as RRC and his guru Karuvurar is gain widely debated and the jury is out on whether its RRC or a rishi and his disciple because RRC was in his thirties when he ascended throne and when he built the temple must have ben in his fifties. The Vijayanagara Kings were not direct descendents of the Cholas The Sarapallam(inclined slope)theory again is refuted and the present day theory is they built a circumambulatory mud mount around the Vimana as they raised the structure and then cleared all away. However Its a temple which merits a complete coverage in itself because it was the first colossal size building of that time frame in India The Vimanam has eight walls as opposed to just four and there are exceptional paintings between the two walls . The temple is not only a place of worship but a living museum of the way of life of tamils 1000 years ago as its filled with stone carvings of how the temple was built who donated what to the temple etc In 2010 ad it will be thousand years after consegration of the temple. we feel discovery should give the temple another programme with focus just itself and another on RRC because he was great builder,administrator ( a king who measured all his land declared them wet and dry and taxed accordingly including declaring certain parts tax free for temples and infirmaries) More information about the temple and the king can be found in the website www.thebigtemple.com many thanks Dr S Rathinam FRCS Specialist Registrar in Cardiothoracic Surgery University Hospital of North Staffordshire Stoke on Trent UK
Mr Sridhar Rathinam FRCSEd Specialist Registrar in Cardiothoracic Surgery University Hospitals of North Staffordshire Princes Road Hartshill Stoke on Trent ST4 7LN UK Phone :07779803446 email:[email protected]
Everybody sees things as they are and wonder why I dream of things that were never there and wonder why not?!
It is wonderful that you took time out from your busy schedule to send this email. I have seen this program too, and some of the "Rajaraja tried to expiate his sins by building a temple to his god" etc, really smacked (at least to me ) of typical Western prejudice towards Hinduism and Indians in general. They wouldn't have said something like that about some medieval European King. Well done!
Since our group professes to discuss tamil "culture" and history, I must say, even if it is slightly off topic, that my sympathies lie completely with the two ladies, Khushboo and Suhasini. And all these so called guardians of tamil "culture" and "paNpaadu" whatever that may mean, are behaving in a ridiculous manner. India is a free country and people are entitled to have their opinions. Slapping Khushboo with a defamation suit is the absolute pits.