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Many of the smaller towns in the Thanjavur area are well known
for their impressive Chola temples. The distances of each from
Thanjavur are in brackets
Thirukandiyur (10 km)
the temple here,
Brahma
Sirakandeshwara and Harsaba Vimochana Perumal, are noted for
their fine sculptural
work.
Thiruvaiyaru (13 km)
the famous
temple here is
dedicated to Siva and is known as
Panchanatheshwara.
Accommodation is completely booked out every January, when an
eight day music festival is held in honour of the saint,
Thiagaraja.
Tiruvarur (55 km)
the Thyagarajaswami Temple ar Turuvarur, between Thanjavur and Nagapattinam, boasts an
807-pillared hall and the largest temple chariot in Tamil Nadu.
It's dragged through the streets during the 10 days car festival
in March. There are numerous cheap places to stay around the bus
stand.
Velenkanni
(94 km) this is
the famous Christian
pilgrim centre, the site of the famous Catholic Roman Church of
our Lady of Good Health, people from all religions flock to the
Church, many donating gold and silver models of cured body
parts. A major festival is held at the beginning of September.
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