The Pallavas declined and eventually fell around the ninth century. Aditya I’s victory over Aparajita, the final monarch of this dynasty, in 897 A.D. and his subsequent demise guaranteed the rise of Chola hegemony. Political rivalries between three governing dynasties—the Cholas, the Chalukyas, and eventually the Rashtrakutas—who were all outstanding builders in their own right, dominated the next 250 years of South Indian history.

The Cholas gained political prominence from this war that hasn’t been matched by any other force in South India to date. They had an impact on nearly the whole south of the Tungabhadra. They were also a powerful maritime nation, which contributed to India’s influence being felt beyond of its borders.

The Cholas were master builders who enhanced the superb architectural heritage of their forebears. They are responsible for two amazing temples that India is proud of: Tanjore and Gangaikondacholapuram. These temples are the product of two generations of talented architects. The more well-known of the two is the older Brihadeeswara temple in Tanjore. This building is situated around 250 years apart from the final Pallava monument.

The Brihadishvara Temple, Thanjavur

There is clear doubt that the older Pallava traditions were positively changing during the reigns of the early Cholas and Aparajita, the last Pallava emperor, even if exceptional structures from this lengthy interregnum have not remained. Constructed sometime between A.D. 930 and 940, the Korangunatha temple in Srinivasanallur (Tiruchirapalli District) is a notable example of early Chola architecture. This modestly sized building is exquisite without being ostentatious.

The Pallava school’s signature lion motif is dropped, and the pillars and capitals are sculpted with more dexterity. The external treatment is purely architectural, with a sensible predilection for simple surfaces. Its three-story vimana tower rises to a height of fifteen meters above the ground. Numerous figure-sculptures, each about half the size of a human and placed within recesses, are scattered around the vimana’s surfaces.

The Siva temple in Tanjore, built more than fifty years later, is the pinnacle of Chola architecture. The 68-meter-tall tower’s imposing sense of strength and manly dignity evokes in stone the earthly splendor and grandeur that the Cholas achieved under Rajaraja the Great (A.D. 985–1018). Its enormous physical dimensions were designed by a king who understood the power and greatness inside himself.

The monumental gateway of the Brihadishvara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. c. 1010-1025 CE. The temple is one of the largest Chola period buildings.

The vimana’s vertical base, with its exterior surface treatment harmonising with the composition as a whole, is a remarkable architectural feat in and of itself. Massive cornices that resemble those found in Mamallapuram’s rock-cut temples split the foundation in half horizontally. Each of these stories is surrounded by a variety of pilasters that accentuate their vertical effect and strengthen the pyramid’s overall upward sweep.

These pilasters create compartments inside which the surface is fragmented, and these niches are filled with expertly crafted figure-subjects. While the Cholas undoubtedly constructed a large number of temples, few of them are as magnificent as the Tanjore temple. They should have received the highest recognition from future generations for their generosity as art patrons, even if it was the only legacy left by the Cholas.

Another Chola contribution to South Indian temple building is this magnificent structure, which is comparable in stature to Tanjore’s Siva temple. This temple is located near Gangaikondacholapuram, which is 27 kilometers from Kumbakonam and 61 kilometers northeast of Tanjore. This temple, which was constructed some twenty years after its Tanjore counterpart with the clear goal of outdoing it in terms of beauty, is all that is left of the former splendor of this Chola metropolis.

It is somewhat larger in design and has more intricate architectural elements, but it is essentially in the same style. The temple is surrounded by a massive wall that looks like a fort. The assembly hall (Mahamantapa), a modest structure measuring 53 by 29 meters with more than 150 pillars of rather simple design, is a significant aspect of this building. The earliest examples of the “thousand-pillared halls,” which are the focal point of the enormous Dravidian temples of subsequent periods, may be seen in this hall with numerous columns. Similar in design to the Tanjore temple, the vimana of the Gangaikondacholapuram temple is 12 meters shorter.

The tower has several unique elements and rises on a square foundation that is thirty meters wide. This has a concave aspect instead of the strong, straight lines of the Tanjore vimana, with slightly curved mouldings at the corners and on the sides. Compared to the macho strength of the Tanjore tower, the final effect is a little sensuou