We travelled to Thanjavur, formerly Tanjore, by public bus from Pondicherry via Chidambaram. The first leg of the journey was very pleasant – a two-hour drive through rural India admiring the paddy fields and watching the locals going about their daily chores. The four-hour leg from Chidambaram to Thanjavur, however, was the worst bus journey we were to experience in india! Our driver was a lunatic! He hurtled through towns and countryside alike with his hand permanently on the bus’s hooter which sounded more like a foghorn. It was so loud that we gave up trying to listen to anything through our headphones. The driver also argued constantly with his conductor, often turning his head completely away from the road in front of him and taking his hands off the steering wheel, so that he could gesticulate wildly and make his point more forcefully. It was terrifying!
When we arrived in Tanjore, we didn’t pull into the bus stand as we had in every other town, so we missed our stop and had to get an auto back to our lodgings. We had booked a homestay rather than a hotel for our couple of nights in town and were welcomed by a very pleasant elderly couple who were managing the place for the owner. Our room was huge, if rather old-fashioned and bizarrely furnished, with battered suitcases and grotesque garden gnomes among the eclectic collection of decorations! The best thing about the place, though, was the breakfast – a fusion of home-cooked Indian and European dishes served amongst the fruit trees in the garden.
The main attraction in Thanjavur is Brihadishwara Temple, a World Heritage site. It was built between 1003 and 1010 AD by Rajaraja I and is the crowning glory of Chola temple architecture. It is certainly impressive.
Outside of the main temple building, there is one of India’s largest statues of Nandi (Shiva’s sacred bull). This 16th century Nayak creation is 6 metres long and was cut from a single rock. Also worth seeing is the amazing wall art, exquisite lime-plaster Chola frescoes which, for years, were hidden under later Nayak-era murals.
From the temple, we made our way to the Royal Palace, a rather odd maze-like complex, but interesting in parts. It was built and added to over several centuries, beginning in 1535 and ending in 1855. It was far too hot for either of us to attempt to climb the palace towers, but we did wander around for quite a while, marvelling at the mixed bag of ruin and renovation. At one point, we were ushered into an air-conditioined theatre to watch a promotional film about Thanjavur. It gave a totally unrealistic picture of the city and surrounding area with spotlessly clean streets, pristine parks and few crowds, but it did give us a good opportunity to cool off!
Our exit out of Thanjavur was as crazy as our arrival. We hired an auto to take us 4km out of town to the new bus stand to catch our bus to Madurai. We soon realised we had another mad driver! He drove without a thought for any other road users, resulting in an altercation with another auto driver and his passenger at some traffic lights. I’ve no doubt at all that it would have become physical if a policeman on a motorbike hadn’t intervened. We hoped our next destination would be a little less dangerous!
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