Thanjavur properly situated in the cauvery delta is the rice bowl of Tamilnadu. A fertile land that was also fertile for art, architecture and culture. Though it was a famous city from early times, its importance was fully understood only by the later cholas (AD846-1276) who built an empire making it their capital. It was vijayalaya who founded the later chola kingdom here and Rajaraja the Great (AD 984-1014) and his son Rajendra (AD1012-1044) were the real architects of the chola empire that held sway over India upto Ganges in the north and held colonies in myanmar, malaya and the east Indies. It became the centre of Tamil Learning and culture.

It became the original home of the Dravidian art and architechture besides being the centre of Tamil classical dance which is now known as Bharathanatyam all over the world. Even, today the teachers of Bharatha Natyam hail from Thanjavur. Its further glory is the carnatic music which in essence is nothing but classical Tamil music. The only remains of its glorious past are the beautiful temples that were built by the cholas known for their amazing architectural wonder, and not less than 74 of them are around Thanjavur itself. The pandyas, the nayaks and the marathas ruled the city after the later cholas and finally the british made it a district.