The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Palatial tourism potential yet to be tapped

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Palatial tourism potential yet to be tapped

By Our Staff Reporter

THANJAVUR, JULY 14. The tourist potential of the 400-year-old palace of Nayak and Maratha kings here remains underutilised, say tourist promoters of Thanjavur.

The sprawling complex with unique buildings is not easily visible, thanks to defacement of walls with posters and graffiti and to the presence of a fire station, a police station and a school at the entrance.

"First, the visibility of the palace should be improved to give a feeling to visitors that they are entering the complex," say citizens.

Housed in the complex is the Saraswathi Mahal Library, one of the biggest manuscript libraries in Asia. Possessing 40,000 rare palm leaf and paper manuscripts in Sanskrit, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil, the library remains a heaven for researchers. "Many interesting features of the library have to be brought to the notice of the visitors," says J. Radhakrishnan, Collector, who has embarked on a tourism promotion drive.

According to Kudavayil Balasubramanian, publications manager of the library, there are many features which will attract tourists. The Sanskrit manuscript, "Sapthartha Chinthamani" by Chidambarakavi contains both the Ramayana and the Bhagavatam.

"Meghamala Manjari" predicts monsoon depending on the gathering of clouds. One part of the manuscript is available in the library and the other part is with the Thiruvananthapuram manuscript library.

The palace houses an art gallery, which has the richest bronze and stone collections in the country. Started in 1951 by the then Collector, Palaniappan, the gallery has 241 bronze icons, 103 stone sculptures and 600 rare coins.

According to Mr. Balasubramanian, "Gajasamharamuthy" in stone is one of the most beautiful sculptures in the gallery. The sculpture of the late Chola (12th century) period, found at Darasuram, depicts Lord Siva slaying a demon in an elephant form (Gaja samharam). The Lord is seen emerging out of the stomach of the elephant, ripping open its body.

The palace complex has two towers — the bell tower and the Arsenal tower — with several floors. On the first floor of the Arsenal tower, there is a skeleton of a whale.

"We have been preserving the skeleton well as it is one of the tourist attractions.

Recently, we have given a coating of preservatives and repaired the stand on which the skeleton stands," said S. Venkatraman, curator. Besides, the living portion of the princes of Thanjavur offers a wide range of exhibits for visitors.

"Tourists who visit the Big Temple should also be facilitated to tour the palace by operating mini buses," say tourist promoters.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu