The Srirangam Rajagopuram: a tower centuries in the making

Arriving at Srirangam from the south, the first thing every pilgrim sees is the South Rajagopuram, thirteen tiers of sculpture rising above Chithirai Street.

The tower in numbers

Height

236 feet (HR&CE); about 72 m

Tiers

13

Consecrated

25 March 1987

Position

South side, in the wall of the seventh (outermost) prakaram

Sources give slightly different heights: the HR&CE portal gives 236 feet, the Ministry of Tourism's Incredible India page 72 metres, and some references 73 metres. We use the HR&CE figure. The HR&CE portal describes it as the tallest temple tower in South Asia. We have not independently verified that comparison.

Centuries unfinished

Historical record

The base of the great southern gateway was built long before the modern era, but the tower above it was never completed. The HR&CE description of the outermost prakaram still refers to the unfinished gopurams of its west, north and east sides as mottai gopuram, bald towers. For centuries the southern entrance to the temple was one of these stumps.

The campaign to complete it

In the twentieth century, the 44th Jeeyar of the Ahobila Mutt took up the task of completing the southern tower and began collecting donations from devotees. The completed Rajagopuram was consecrated on 25 March 1987.

Reading the tower

Like other South Indian gopurams, the Rajagopuram tapers as it rises, each tier carrying rows of stucco sculpture, and is crowned by a barrel-vaulted roof with a row of finials (kalasams). Stand back in the street to the south to see the whole tower, then walk through. The passage beneath it marks the threshold between the outside world and the temple town.

The other gopurams

The Rajagopuram is one of 21 gopurams at Srirangam. Among the others, the white-painted Vellai Gopuram forms the east entrance to the fifth prakaram, and is linked in tradition with Vellayi, a temple dancer remembered for her sacrifice during the 1323 invasion. Read that history.

HR&CE notes a viewpoint south-west of the Ranga Vilasa Mandapam, in the fifth prakaram, from which the gopurams and the vimanam can be seen. Our route through the seven prakarams passes it.