Thanjavur- Saraswati mahal library and Ramdas Swami Muth

In one of the posts we had been to the big and beautiful Brihadeshwar Temple ( Here! ) in Thanjavur. There are many more places to visit in Thanjavur. Thanjavur is in Tamilnadu state of India. 

The Maratha Palace and museum is surely worth visiting. The paintings on the walls of the palace are faded now and the palace needs a lot of restoration work. The royal palace museum and art gallery are situated in the palace. The museum has excellent collection of artifacts. Specially the bronze idols from various centuries, collection of coins and weapons are worth watching.

The Darbar hall was closed for some maintenance work when we had visited the palace on 17th August 2018. 

Darbar Hall
📷 Wikimedia Commons

The royal palace museum
📷 Wikimedia Commons

There is a beautiful clock and watch tower as well as a building named Sangeet mahal. I remember going through a tunnel type staircase to another part of the palace. 

In the same complex, Saraswati Mahal library is situated. It is one of the ancient libraries in Asia and has a huge collection of books, manuscripts and even writings on palm leaves. The books are on various subjects and is really an astonishing collection. 

Saraswati Mahal Library
📷 Wikimedia Commons

Manuscript of Advait bhashy -Adi Shakaracharya.
📷 Wikimedia Commons

The library was initially the Royal library set up in 16th century by the Nayak kings of Thanjavur. After that period, the Maratha rulers of Thanjavur were instrumental in expansion of the library. Sarafoji Raje Bhonsle specially took lot of efforts to gather collections of the rare books in the library. No wonder, his name is given to the library and library is now known as Maharaj Serfojiraje Bhonsle Saraswati Mahal Library. The library has a vast collection of manuscripts and papers and books, the number must be more than a lakh. 

On the ground floor, is a library museum. Here you can have a glimpse of the library collection. It takes a few hours to see only this museum. We could see this floor and as the library closed for the day, decided to come back next day. But sadly, the next day, our nation was in mourning for our beloved leader and late prime minister Atal Bihariji Wajapayee. So all the government facilities were closed on that day. The library is now Tamilnadu government's enterprise. 

There are different tickets for each part of the palace campus. There is a book shop in the Saraswati Mahal library where you can buy books, which you won't be able to find in other book shops.

Books bought from 
Saraswati Mahal Granthalay

We had visited one more important place in that visit. It was the Ramdas Swami Muth. Saint Ramdas (1608 -1681) from Maharashtra had travelled extensively in the country and brought about spiritual awakening and unity in the masses. He was a great saint, poet, philosopher and spiritual guru of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. When he had visited Thanjavur, Maratha ruler of Thanjavur, Venkojiraje Bhosle became his disciple. 

Ramdas swami had set up more than 1000 muths through out the country. In Thanajvur as well, he had set up a muth and told his disciple Bhim Swami to stay in Thanjavur and take care of the muth. Bhim swami had stayed in Thanjavur for many years till his death and by that time had set up some more muths in Thanjavur. 

The muth which we had visited was bit difficult to find out. We were roaming in lanes and by lanes of the thickly populated residential area for lot of time, but finally could find the muth. This was at a walking distance from the Royal Palace campus. 

We could meet the descendent of Mathadipati. Here are some photographs from the Ramdas swami Muth.

 

The Muth from Outside

After roaming a lot, we could see this and realized that we have arrived at the destination!

Entrance Of the Building

A small temple in the compound

Entrance

Entrance

Shri Ram Panchayatan 

The Current Mathadhipati

A closeup 

Ramdas Swami Painting

Zoli

It is told that this is the original painting which makes it, some centuries old! Same with the zoli. It's told that this zoli is there since some centuries. They say that the Rampanchayatan idols are similar to idols at Chafal. 

If you are interested then you can ask for the hand written copy of Dasbodh. We were really excited to see it.

 

Dasbodh Hand Written copy

The wrappings

The wooden cover

Beautiful hand painted front page

 

Handwriting!

 The feri for bhiksha is conducted at the time of festival. The festival is celebrated on large scale which is attended by the Marathi and non marathi people. I don't remember whether the festival is celebrated from Varshpratipada to Ramnavami or at Dasnavami. 

If you are in Thanjavur, make it a point to visit this place or any other Ramdas Swami Muth in Thanjavur. They have preserved these Muths for centuries, at least we can help them by offering some funds. 

How is Thanjavur? It is a medium sized city full of life. The market bustling with people and shops, many temples, mosques and churches, and moderate traffic gives this city it's special characteristics. 

You can buy good quality cotton at very reasonable rates in Thanjavur. I could buy a beautiful cotton saree!

And not to forget this!!

#PlacesToVisitInThanjavur #MarathaPalaceThanjavur #ThanjvurMarathaKingdome #CholaNadu #ThanjavurTouristPlaces