Thanjavur
— — the temple a thousand years has not finished reading.
Not only on a wall.
“An old Chola capital on the Kaveri delta, built around a granite temple that has stood for over a thousand years. The vimana rises sixty-six metres into the South Indian sky, a single shadow over the rice country. The painters of Thanjavur still work in gold leaf and gesso in the lanes off the palace, the same way they did under the Maratha kings. The river feeds the fields and the fields feed the city. from the studio
Thanjavur, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Thanjavur sits on the Kaveri delta in central Tamil Nadu, about 350 kilometres south of Chennai at an elevation of 57 metres. From around 850 to 1279 it was the capital of the Chola empire, one of the longest-ruling dynasties in South Indian history, whose authority at its height reached across the Bay of Bengal to Sumatra. The Marathas took the city in 1674 and ruled until 1855, leaving the palace, library, and the Thanjavur painting tradition. Today the city has a population of around 290,000 and remains the political and cultural centre of the delta.
The Brihadeeswarar Temple, completed in 1010 under Raja Raja Chola I, is the centre of the old city and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987. Its granite vimana rises 66 metres, one of the tallest of its kind in India, capped by a single 80-tonne stone said to have been hauled up an earthen ramp begun six kilometres away. The walls carry early Chola frescoes that were re-discovered beneath later Nayak overpainting in the 1930s. The temple has remained in continuous use for over a thousand years.
The Brihadeeswarar Temple opens early morning until about noon and reopens in the late afternoon; entry is free and modest dress is expected. The Maratha palace complex nearby holds the Saraswathi Mahal Library, one of the oldest continuously running libraries in Asia, with manuscripts from the sixteenth century. November through February is the comfortable season. Thanjavur Junction is well connected by overnight train from Chennai Egmore in about eight hours, and the nearest airport is Tiruchirappalli, 60 kilometres west.