Thanjavur Travel Guide: The Big Temple, the Palace and Chola Day Trips

The main Thanjavur tourist places sit close together: the district administration puts the palace about a kilometre from the Big Temple. The other two Great Living Chola Temples are within a day's round trip, and so are Swamimalai, known for its bronze icons, and Thiruvaiyaru, where the Thyagaraja music festival is held. The routes on our Thanjavur tour packages page stay one or two nights.

Brihadisvara Temple (the Big Temple)

Rajaraja I inaugurated this temple in 1009–10, and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) calls it the most ambitious structural temple built of granite. Its tower rises more than 60 metres, the linga in the sanctum is 8.7 metres high, and the plinth carries the king's own inscriptions. On the walls of the lower ambulatory inside, Chola murals lie beneath later Nayak paintings. Known locally as Thanjai Periya Kovil, it is still a working temple, and entry is free. Official hours differ (the ASI lists 6.30 am to 8.30 pm; Incredible India shows a break from 12.30 to 4 pm), so plan on the morning or the evening.

Thanjavur Palace and the Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery

The palace was built partly by the Nayaks and partly by the Marathas, who ruled Thanjavur from 1674 to 1855, and the Maratha royal family still lives in part of it, with their own Chandramouleeswarar temple inside the walls. The district administration describes huge corridors, observation towers, stucco work and fresco-painted ceilings. The Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery in the complex holds bronze images of gods and goddesses from the 9th to the 19th century, with old coins and paintings; Incredible India lists it as open from 9 am to 6 pm.

Saraswathi Mahal Library

Started by Thanjavur's Nayak kings in the 16th century and greatly enriched by the Maratha king Serfoji, the library in the palace complex keeps palm-leaf and paper manuscripts in Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and other languages, and has been open to the public since 1918. Its museum shows illustrated manuscripts, atlases, Thanjavur-style paintings and portraits of the Maratha kings. Both the district administration and Incredible India give its hours as 10 am to 1 pm and 1.30 to 5.30 pm, closed on Wednesdays and government holidays, so keep a Wednesday for something else.

Rajarajan Manimandapam

This memorial tower in the south of the town was built for the 8th World Tamil Conference in 1995. Its ground floor holds a museum run by the state archaeology department, and the district's tourism promotion council keeps a park around it. Incredible India suggests climbing the tower for a view across Thanjavur. The district administration lists it as open from 10 am to 5.45 pm, closed on Wednesdays.

The other Great Living Chola Temples

Two more Chola temples share the Big Temple's UNESCO listing, and the ASI admits visitors to both free of charge. The Airavatesvara Temple at Darasuram, a suburb of Kumbakonam, was built by Rajaraja II (1143–1173); its tower is 24 metres high, and the district administration singles out the miniature sculptures on its front columns. Gangaikonda Cholapuram, completed by Rajendra I in 1035, has a 53-metre tower and six pairs of monolithic door guardians. The ASI places it about 250 km from Chennai on the road to Kumbakonam, so it suits the drive down from Chennai as well as a day out from Thanjavur.

Swamimalai and Thiruvaiyaru

Swamimalai is one of the six abodes of Murugan, and the district administration notes how sought after its bronze idols are; "Swamimalai Bronze Icons" are a registered Geographical Indication. Thiruvaiyaru, about 12 km from Thanjavur according to Incredible India, has a well-known temple and the shrine of the composer-saint Thyagaraja, where the Thyagaraja Aradhana, a festival of Carnatic music, is held every year (Tamil Nadu Tourism). Either fits into half a day, and together they make a full one.

Manora Fort and the Grand Anicut

For a longer day out, Manora, at Sarabendrarajapattinam on the Bay of Bengal, is an eight-storey hexagonal tower about 23 metres tall, built in 1814–15 by the Maratha ruler Serfoji II to celebrate a British victory over Napoleon's forces. The Grand Anicut, or Kallanai, is an ancient dam of rough stone and clay across the Cauvery, which the district administration credits to the Chola king Karikala in the 2nd century AD. Both are easiest with your own car and driver.

Thanjavur is a town to take slowly, with its temple, its palace and its crafts. A few ideas for your days here:

• See the Big Temple twice: once in the morning light, and again after dark, when the granite has cooled underfoot.
• Give the palace complex an afternoon for the bronzes in the art gallery and the library's manuscript museum, on any day but Wednesday if the library matters to you.
• Buy the town's own crafts, several of them registered Geographical Indications: Thanjavur paintings, art plates, dolls, the Thanjavur veenai and netti (pith) work.
• Visit the Punnainallur Mariamman temple, about six kilometres east of the town, which the district administration dates to the Maratha period.
• See Schwartz Church, built in 1779 beside the Sivaganga tank.
• Time your visit for Natyanjali: around Maha Shivaratri, in the Tamil month of Maasi (roughly February to March), classical dancers perform at temples in Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Chidambaram and other towns, according to Tamil Nadu Tourism.

• By air: the closest airport is Tiruchirappalli International; official figures put it 59 to 61 km away. Madurai International Airport is the other choice for a route that starts in the south.
• By train: the railway station, Thanjavur Junction, is about 1.5 km from the Big Temple. Its direct services include the Uzhavan Express to Chennai Egmore, introduced by Southern Railway in 2013, and trains to Tiruchirappalli, Madurai, Rameswaram and other cities.
• By road: Thanjavur is about 330 km from Chennai by the ASI's reckoning and about 55 km from Tiruchirappalli. Government and private buses run from Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Thiruvarur and Pudukkottai.
• On our routes: both packages that stay here arrive by road from Mahabalipuram, with a private car and driver.