We left Madurai for Tanjore (now called Thanjavur) by car, a distance of 180 kilometers. The countryside here was mostly rice paddies, sugar cane, eucalyptus and cashew trees. We saw some roadside stands and lean-tos with small cook-fires and we stopped to see what was being made and sold. Women and children were roasting the shells off the cashews and peeling off the remains. They had permanently stained hands from this onerous task.

Anne with our driver, Sedu, in front of Elephant Rock

Farmers working in the field

Intense roadside chai brewing

Young girl filling peat pots for nurseries

The real price of cashews
Our hotel, the Ideal River View, was about 8 kilometers out of town up a small country lane. It borders a river and has lovely shaded gardens, large, covered verandas and cottage-like rooms. Just what we needed, a cool and restful oasis in the country after the city bustle we’d been in since our arrival in India. Ted took advantage of the hammock outside our room, napping soundly, away from the noise and chaos of Indian cities. The hotel also had bicycles for hire and we rode down a quiet country road early one morning, enjoying the sight of peacocks, hoopoes, kingfishers and parrots.

Our room

River view from dining patio

Hotel veranda

Hotel grounds

Floral arrangement

Ted napping by the river

Cattle being herded along the river, as seen on our bike ride
In the 1940's and 50's Ted’s mother played the mayuri veena with an Indian music ensemble. The mayuri veena is in the shape of a peacock and is played with a bow.One of Ted’s missions on this visit to India was to find out if and where these instruments are still made. We had not seen any in music stores and our research indicated that this form of veena has fallen out of favor. Rumor was that there may still be a few places where mayuri veenas are made by hand. Tanjore is a veena-making town, so we set about finding veena makers.

Ted's mom playing the mayuri veena
We found one in his workshop down a narrow alley where chunks of wood roughly shaped like a veena were piled outside the door. Inside, the veena maker, P. Srinivasan, and his assistant were busy working on several veenas.

Tanjore is a "veena makering" town

Veenas take shape

Crafting a veena
They were very pleased to have visitors and were happy to show us their work in progress - all hand-carved, shaped and decorated. But no mayuri veenas. We were taken to a musical instrument museum up the street where further conferring and head shaking narrowed the mayuri veena making to a town near Hyderabad.
Maybe.

Veena ready to play
The Brihadishwara temple is another beautiful and ornately carved temple. There was also an elephant on hand to collect donations and then bless you with his trunk.

Detail of temple carvings

Brihadishwara temple towers

Priest arrives on his motorcycle

Family portrait at the temple

25-ton Nandi statue, carved from a single piece of rock

Fresco dating to 1010 a.d.

Anne gets temple elephant blessing
The Art Gallery in Tanjore is well worth a visit with its large collection of beautiful Chola sculptures and bronze statues from the 9th to 18th centuries.

We purchased a liter bottle of water from a vendor outside the Art Gallery which had probably been tampered with and refilled with tap water and sealed with a hair dryer and plastic wrap. We both fell violently ill hours later within minutes of each other. It had to happen at some point in our trip; too bad it happened in Tanjore. We missed the dinner and Bharatanatyam dance show on the veranda of our hotel.

12th century Chola bronze of Parvati
The drive to Trichy (now called Tiruchirappalli) was disappointing. The route was under construction much of the way, a future 4-lane divided highway, through a very industrial area with many universities along the road and more being built. Very few farms or green areas.
Trichy is best known for its unusual Rock Fort Temple which is perched high on a rocky outcropping in the middle of the city. It is a long, steep climb to the top and Ted did it by himself as Anne was still very much under the weather. Ted had visited the Rock Fort Temple with his parents in the '60's and really wanted to see it again in spite of his queasy stomach.

The Rock Fort Temple

Freshly shorn woman makes her way up to the Rock Fort Temple
The Hindu head-shaving ceremony is performed for children before the age of four. Hair is deemed to be an adornment. Shaving the head instills devotion and humility. The ceremony is often repeated for boys on their birthdays until they reach puberty. Many adult men and women also complete this ceremony as a sign of devotion, in sacrifice to a god, or as thanks for an answered prayer. After the birth of a long-awaited son or the recovery of a sick husband, Hindu women often visit a temple and shave their heads as a gesture of thanks. Newly-shaven heads are covered with yellow sandalwood paste to prevent rashes.
Trichy's massive Sri Ranganathaswamy temple, dedicated to Vishnu, dates from the 10th Century and is one of India's largest temple complexes. The inner temple (Hindus only) shelters a statue of Vishnu reclining on a great serpent, creating an island of calm in the ocean of chaos. Worshipers of Vishnu, called Vaishnavites, wear vertical marks on their forehead.

Temple Brahmin

Sadhu lost in his own world

Colorful temple wall figures

Brahmin
The Sri Jambukeshwara temple is dedicated to Shiva and Parvati. Devotees to Shiva, or Shaivites, paint horizontal bands across their foreheads. Ted was taken into the Hindus-only inner sanctum by a priest to see the sacred Shiva lingam.

Temple priest

Priest helping a family perform a puja

Ceremonial temple elephant

Shiva lingam

Kids pause their street cricket game to clown for the camera