Tanjore

City and district in the southern Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, the eastern boundary of which is the Bay of Bengal. The
Tanjore district lies in the Cauvery River
delta, south of the river’s main channel;
even today this extremely fertile area
grows a large percentage of India’s rice.
This district was the core homeland of
the Chola dynasty, and the land’s agricultural fecundity was the underlying
source of the dynasty’s power, which at
one point stretched through most of
southern India and even extended to
Malaysia. The Chola dynasty used
their wealth and power to build
enormous temples throughout Tamil
Nadu, but especially in the Tanjore
district and Tanjore city, their capital.
The Chola zenith came with King Raja
Raja (r. 985–1014 C.E.), who built Tanjore
city’s Brhadeshvar temple, and his
son Rajendra (r. 1014–1042 C.E.),
whose greatest monument is the temple
at Gangaikondacholapuran. The
Brhadeshvar temple is dedicated to
Shiva as the “Great Lord”; some of
the most notable of the other temples
built or improved by the Cholas
were at Kumbhakonam, Thiruvaiyaru,
Chidambaram, and Shrirangam.