Thanjavur · 1010 AD
What you're walking through
In 1010 AD, Thanjavur was the capital of the Chola empire, which ruled most of southern India and sent its fleets to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. That year its king, Rajaraja I, finished the temple he had built for Shiva, the Rajarajeshvaram, known today as the Brihadeeswarar temple.
Its tower, 66 m tall, was built of granite brought from quarries far away, and is topped by a dome said to weigh about 80 tonnes. Inscriptions on its walls list the temple's gifts and its people: priests, musicians, hundreds of dancers, cooks and craftsmen. Around it lay the town, and beyond the town, the rice fields of the Kaveri delta.
Who lives here
Thanjavur man
A white cotton veshti wrapped at the waist · most people of the Chola country farmed rice
Men farmed the rice fields of the Kaveri delta, traded, worked as smiths, weavers and potters, or served the temple as priests, musicians, watchmen and accountants, all of them named in its inscriptions.
Thanjavur woman
A draped length of cotton or silk · the temple's inscriptions name hundreds of dancers
Women worked in the fields, the markets and the temple. Chola queens and princesses gave temples land, gold, jewels and bronze statues of the gods, and their gifts were carved into the temple walls.
Cow
Gave milk, curd and ghee · temples were given cows and ewes to keep their lamps burning
Cattle were a village's wealth. Chola inscriptions record gifts of cows and ewes to temples, whose ghee kept lamps burning day and night before the gods.
Bull
Pulled ploughs and carts · the bull Nandi is the mount of Shiva
Bullocks did the heavy work of the rice fields. As Nandi, a bull sits facing Shiva in every Shiva temple.
The temple is simplified: the real one is covered in carvings and sculpture, and its courtyard, gateways and town are drawn smaller. The big Nandi pavilion in front of the temple today, and the fort walls around it, were built centuries later, so they aren't here. The people and their period clothing are stylized approximations.
How to walk
Press Start walking above. WA SD or the arrow keys move you, the mouse looks around, hold Shift with a movement key to run at 3× walking speed, and Space jumps. Look at someone to see who they are. Esc pauses, and M turns the sound on or off. You're invisible: nobody here can see you.
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