Early Chola Temples
by S. R. Balasubrahmanyam | 1960 | 105,501 words
This volume of Chola Temples covers Parantaka I to Rajaraja I in the timeframe A.D. 907-985. The Cholas of Southern India left a remarkable stamp in the history of Indian architecture and sculpture. Besides that, the Chola dynasty was a successful ruling dynasty even conquering overseas regions....
*Three phases of Early Chola Style?*
Douglas Barrett in his book ‘Early Cola Bronzes’ has postulated three phases during the early Chola period which, according to him, extended from a.d.850 to 1014 and its second phase from a.d. 940 to 970. In support of this theory, he considers the three temples of Erumbur, Gramam and Tirunamanallur, of the late Parataka I’s age lying far from the heartland of the Chola capital and one temple near at home, the Gomuk-tisvara temple at Tiruvaduturai which he assigns to the latter part of the reign of Parantaka I, and which he considers ‘crucial to his argument’ (Early Cola Bronzes pp. 5-7). Barrett holds the view that these four temples usher in (his) phase II in or about a.d. 940. Let us consider th soundness of this view.
(See the following chapters)