Description Vibrant at 1000. Big Temple, Thanjavur, India” which honors the millennium of the consecration of Rajarajeswaram and is elegantly produced, is a tour de force. It is a well-conceived and beautifully crafted secular exploration (“visual walkthrough”) of a creation that (in Anuradha’s words) “has no equal..in sheer scale..is exquisite but does not tax the senses, is mathematically precise, yet creatively dynamic..tranquil and inspiring.”Iqbal’s photography here is joyous, admiring, rich in art and historical whispers and intimations,offering stunning images like the opening with the birds set off against the blue sky and the Vimana, or the image of people crowding around the priest with the Aarti, a work of magic realism. But it is photography that works within an aesthetic of restraint, which avoids the artiness of self-conscious art and leaves one with the feeling not of surfeit but of wanting more through the particular lens.” Every lover of Temple architecture should accompany Iqbal on this visual walkthrough, share in the wonder that was and is Rajarajeswaram, experience the emotions, marvel at the Big Temple’s preservation over the centuries, imagine that one historical era could collapse into another, and come out awed and inspired. , –N.Ram/Editor-In-Chief,The Hindu
