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Thanjavur 1 - Rajaraja cholan manimandapam


 On a cold morning of margazhi at 6 AM we left Chennai for our travel to Thanjavur. Its been in our wish list for quiet a few years, we want to see the big temple/Brahadeeswarar temple. Finally we made the trip owing to lesser work Christmas days.
The Tambaram-Chengalpet route was quite busy on the Wednesday morning, to avoid the traffic in the later part of the morning, we took our breakfast beyond Melmaruvathur. After that drove straight to Thanjavur via Ulundhurpettai - Ariyalur route. Once we took the detour from Ariyalur towards Thanjavur, all we could see were green paddy fields, all getting ready for the Thai masam harvest. Chola naadu sorudaithu - is a Tamil saying that all the rice we eat comes from the Chola naadu, i.e. Thanjavur. Numerous small rivers flow through this place apart from the Kaveri. You can see them all along the drive.

We reached our pre-booked accommodation - RK Temple stay by 12:30pm. This is apartments turned hotel rooms stay. One room in a first floor apartment was allocated to us. This does not include breakfast but costs Rs.2000 per day.

After a quick refresh we went to Kamatchi Mess near the new bus stand for lunch. This is a must go for any non-veg food lovers. Meals are differentiated into Nalli meals, Meen kuzhambu meals, etc and based on that gravy is given in large portion while we still get the rest of the gravies like - crab gravy, chicken gravy, etc. A mutton kola urundai costs Rs.30. It was crowed at 2:30 PM too; people had to share tables. This lunch called for a good sleep and much needed rest after the long drive.

In evening we went around the place, visited Rajaraja cholan manimandapam. The place has less traffic even though a weekday. So vehicles are easily parked on either side of the roads. There are many restaurants along the main roads. While driving people don't horn much, they wait patiently. This makes your drive relaxed in an unknown area/roads. Any one we get to interact with, are humble and make you feel comfortable.

The Rajaraja cholan manimandapam has a statue of Rajaraja cholan in a horse back then a tower inside which one can go up through the staircase. Many couples were seen inside the tower. Having spent some half an hour here, we took a light dinner at Akshayams and went back to our stay. Akshayams has a good ambience, food tastes good, not spicy at all. Appam here is accompanied with kurma or paaya. Unlike the non-veg in Chennai the Paaya here is more of a mild or a bland kurma with lots of sombu. Items like kozhukattai, kuzhipaniyaram too are served here. On the way we stopped at the Thanjavur's famous - Bombay sweets and had Chandrakala, there are few varieties of this sweet here. Suryakala and Chandrakala sweets seem to have originated from here. You can see the outlet everywhere in this city. There where 3 of them in Medical college road alone. This road also houses numerous other eateries.




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Location: Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

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