Daily History Challenge · No. 30 · Tuesday 28 July 2026 · Chain
Puzzle No. 30: Chain
The anchor was Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur (1003 CE). Every challenger is listed below with its year.
The anchor
Between about 1003 and 1010 the Chola emperor Rajaraja I built the great Brihadisvara (Rajarajeswaram) temple at Thanjavur, dedicated to Shiva, as the imperial state temple of the expanding Chola state. Its granite vimana rises more than sixty metres, among the tallest temple towers in India, and the whole complex stands as the supreme achievement of Chola Dravidian architecture. Beyond its scale, the temple was an economic and administrative institution: its inscriptions record vast endowments of land, gold, livestock and hundreds of attendants, dancers and musicians, documenting the wealth that flowed from Chola agriculture and Indian Ocean trade. The temple embodied the sacral kingship of Rajaraja, whose conquests across south India and Sri Lanka made the Cholas the paramount power of the peninsula. Together with the later Gangaikondacholisvaram and Airavatesvara temples it forms the UNESCO-listed Great Living Chola Temples.
The 10 challengers, in order of date
Before Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
Before Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
Before Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
Before Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
Before Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
After Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
After Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
After Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
After Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur
After Rajaraja Chola completes the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur