Conversation

Managed a few artsy sunset shots of the brihadeswara temple yesterday. Good thing we went at dusk. It was sweltering before. Thanjavur is way hotter than Coimbatore.
Image
Image
Image
Image
1
35
The Maratha overlay on Tamil history in thanjavur always struck me as slightly weird but it really hits you with full force here considering how Deep South this is. The 11th century chola stuff is mostly bronze, and stone sculpture. The Maratha era is frescoes and manuscripts
Image
Image
Image
Image
1
27
I think I was a complaining 12-year-old the last time I was dragged by parents in their 40s on a major temple visit ~1986. Now I’m in my 40s helping parents in 80s navigate the brutal stone steps.
1
8
These temple complexes are brutal on < 15 (boring for kids) and > 60 people (brutal on knees etc). Takes hours and it’s all barefoot walking. Often on hot stone.
1
7
The steps are all 18” or higher for some reason. And the original stone railings just about a foot high. And they wisely don’t put modern railings, it would ruin the effect. But this means elderly need major help getting around everywhere and disabled basically need to be carried
3
5
Doing this trip with parents and an aunt/uncle/cousin. Just learned that a Sanskrit book by my great grandfather is supposedly in the library. We looked for it but only the major stuff from 1700s to early 1800s is on display. He’d have been b 1870s.
1
15