Royal Palace Museum

The royal objects that are on display in the museum include royal clothing, headgear and hunting weapons. On the upper floor is a skeleton of a 92-feet whale that washed ashore near Tranquebar in 1955. Thanjavur Palace has the famous Saraswathi Mahal library, an art gallery and the Royal Museum with an interesting collection of artifacts, paintings, books and other memorabilia. The paintings in the Darbar Hall retell the stories from the epic Ramayana. The walls and ceilings are covered with detailed stucco figures of gods and goddesses. Thanjavur Art Gallery, located in the Thanjavur Palace has an exquisite collection of ancient sculptures and coins. It is officially called the “Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery” and locally known as “Thanjavur Kalaikoodam”. These bronze sculptures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses range from 9th century A.D to 19th century A.D. Some very unique deities and saints can be seen. Early Indian lifestyle, their clothing, ornaments and even hairdo are carved in these statues. Another interesting feature is the collection of old coins. Coins from as early as 300 B.C are exhibited here, which is quite astonishing. Artifacts are placed in a hall which used to be the Kings’ royal court (Durbar Hall). The walls and the ceiling of Durbar hall are superbly ornamented with paintings and statuettes. Even the pillars and arches are decorated with fascinating scenes from Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. The highlight of the art gallery is of course, the collection of ancient bronze statues. A lot of stone sculptors and bronze idols that belong to the Chola period, Vijayanagara period and later period are found here. This section is comparatively interesting in the palace complex. A few centuries ago the walls of the palace were covered with rich paintings. However, most of them have been completely destroyed due to lack of preservation. Even today, some faded paintings remain and unscrupulous visitors continue to destroy them with graffiti.

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