Thanjavur

Overview

A Thanjavur tour is organised around one building. The Brihadisvara Temple, known locally as the Big Temple, was raised by the Chola king Rajaraja I and finished in about the year 1010. Its main tower climbs to around 60 metres, and the sanctum beneath it is still in daily worship. A single stone was shaped into the huge Nandi bull facing the shrine, estimated at about 25 tonnes. Along an upper corridor, carvings show 81 of the 108 dance poses called karanas, and painted Chola murals survive in the passages, only part of them uncovered. UNESCO groups the temple with those at Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram as the Great Living Chola Temples.

After the Cholas, power in the delta passed to the Nayak rulers and then to the Marathas, who held the city from the 1670s until 1855. Their palace is the natural second stop on a Thanjavur temple tour. Within the complex you find the Durbar Hall, a bell tower and the Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery, where stone and bronze images from the ninth to the twelfth centuries have been gathered from temples across the region. The Saraswathi Mahal Library shares the same grounds. It began under the Nayaks, grew under Maharaja Serfoji II, and holds tens of thousands of palm-leaf and paper manuscripts in Tamil, Sanskrit, Marathi, Telugu and other languages. Ask at the palace ticket counter which parts of it are open to visitors.

Thanjavur is also a place to look at how things are made. Tanjore painting, with gold foil laid over gesso and set with glass beads, took its familiar form under the Maratha court and now carries a Geographical Indication tag. The town is equally known for hand-built veenas, clay dancing dolls called Thalaiyatti bommai and art plates in bell metal, and craft shops in the town sell these pieces, so a visit can end with something to take home.

The setting is the Cauvery delta, a landscape of paddy fields, with Tiruchirappalli airport about an hour away by road. Two days are enough for the temple, the palace and the craft stops, and a third lets you add Thiruvaiyaru, a music town about 11 km north, or Gangaikonda Cholapuram, roughly 70 km away. The cooler months from November to February suit sightseeing best, while summer highs reach around 36 C and most of the year's rain, about 1,820 mm, comes with the north-east monsoon between October and January. For dance lovers, the temple also hosts the Brahan Natyanjali festival around Maha Shivaratri.

Known for

A tower of around 60 metres, a monolithic Nandi bull and Chola murals