Places to Visit in Papanasam

The temple stands at Thirukarukavur, about 7 km south of Papanasam on the bank of the Vettar, not in Papanasam itself. Shiva is worshipped here as Mullaivananathar, lord of the jasmine wood, and the goddess as Garbarakshambigai, who guards the womb: the name of the village comes from the story of a woman whose pregnancy the god saved, and couples come from across India for the consecrated ghee and castor oil given as prasadam. It is the eighteenth of the Tevaram-sung Shiva shrines on the south bank of the Kaveri.

A perennial river tumbles out of the Western Ghats above Papanasam, past a temple where sins are said to dissolve, a waterfall named for a sage, and ghats where the far south comes to bathe.

The second reason to stop here, and the one you can walk into. Thirubuvanam weaves silk sarees on pit looms set into the floors of sheds behind ordinary front doors, and the trade runs through one body — the Thirubuvanam Silk Handloom Weavers Co-operative, registered in 1955 and known as THICO — which also holds the Geographical Indication the cloth was granted in March 2019. Its counter is on Sannathi Street a couple of hundred metres east of the temple, which makes this one of the few crafts in Tamil Nadu you can buy from the society that owns its name, in the village the name refers to. What to look at before you buy: the korvai join, where a pallu of a different colour is interlocked thread by thread with the body rather than stitched on.

The Shiva temple whose lingam stands at a tilt. A woman named Thadagai came daily with a garland, the tradition holds, and one day could not get it over him — one account says her sari was slipping and she had only one hand free, another that she was there on a vow for a child — so the god leaned to receive it, and stayed leaning; a Chola king tried elephants and horses and could not straighten it, and the Nayanar Kungiliya Kalaya, arriving from Thirukkadaiyur, tied a rope from his own neck to the shaft and pulled. The temple takes its other name, Thalavaneswarar, from the palmyra grove it stands in — thalam is the palm, and two of the trees still stand in the precinct. The town's Kasi Mutt, seated here, holds many shrines across the delta.

The Shiva temple beside the battlefield of about 879 CE, where the Chola victory over the Pandyas began the dynasty's return. Aditya Chola I is said to have rebuilt the brick shrine standing here in granite in memory of that day. Shiva is worshipped as Sakshinathar, the witness, from the tradition that he appeared to give evidence for a Chettiar woman; the temple is the forty-sixth of the Tevaram-sung Shiva shrines on the north bank of the Kaveri, and is held by the Madurai Adheenam.

Three days, three UNESCO Chola temples and a delta full of bronze-casters, painted palaces and living tradition.

Thanjavur is the traditional home of the Saraswati veena, the classical string instrument of Carnatic music, hand-made by skilled artisans from a single jackfruit tree trunk (ekanda veena). The Thanjavur veena carries a Geographical Indication tag for its distinctive tonal quality and craftsmanship. The instrument is central to the town's centuries-old identity as a music capital.

Swamimalai near Kumbakonam is the world's foremost centre for traditional lost-wax (cire perdue) bronze icon casting, practised by sthapathi families for over a thousand years since Chola times. The panchaloha idols follow strict Shilpa Shastra proportions and are exported to temples worldwide. The craft holds a Geographical Indication tag as Swamimalai bronze icons.