Thanjavur

Thanjavur stands in the fertile Kaveri delta, the old heartland of the Cholas, whose king Rajaraja I raised the granite Brihadisvara temple to Shiva here in the early eleventh century. The delta's canals and paddy fields fed the city, and its wealth in rice made it one of the great royal centres of the Tamil country.

After the Pandyas absorbed the Chola kingdom in 1279, Thanjavur fell to Muslim sultanates and then, in the later fourteenth century, to Vijayanagara. In 1532 Sevappa Nayak, Vijayanagara's viceroy at Arcot, set up a hereditary kingdom here. His successors patronised Telugu and Sanskrit letters and Carnatic music, signed a treaty with the Danes in 1620 that gave them Tranquebar, and began the palace library that became the Sarasvati Mahal. In 1673 Chokkanatha Nayak of Madurai besieged the city, and Thanjavur's king died in its defence. Ekoji, a half-brother of Shivaji sent by Bijapur, took Thanjavur in 1675 and founded the Bhonsle line. Serfoji II, who took the throne in 1798, built up the library's collection of manuscripts and printed books.