Experience the best of Thanjavur

Thanjavur, also known as Tanjore, lies in the fertile delta of the Kaveri River, often called the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu. It was a capital of the Chola dynasty, and the Brihadisvara Temple, completed around the year 1010 by Rajaraja I, rises above the town with a granite tower more than sixty metres high and a huge stone Nandi bull facing the shrine. It is part of the Great Living Chola Temples World Heritage site.

The Thanjavur Maratha Palace complex holds an art gallery of Chola bronzes and the Saraswathi Mahal Library, with rare palm-leaf manuscripts. The town is known for Thanjavur paintings with gold leaf, for bobble-head dolls, and for the veena, a stringed instrument. Within reach lie the Chola temples at Darasuram and Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the temple town of Kumbakonam, and the Grand Anicut dam on the Kaveri.

A traditional meal arrives on a banana leaf with rice, sambar, rasam, vegetables and curd, and filter coffee follows, a speciality of nearby Kumbakonam. Bharatanatyam dance and Carnatic music have a long home here. Winters from November to February are comfortable; summers are very hot, and the north-east monsoon brings rain from October to December.