From the river delta of the south, the Cholas built a seafaring empire that reached Southeast Asia, and temple towers that still rule the skyline of Thanjavur.
Chola · c. 850–1279
the bronze and the tower.
Tamil Nadu's great temple towns
What they left behind
Monument
The great temples of Thanjavur, Gangaikondacholapuram and Darasuram, a thousand years old and still in use.
Food
A feast on a banana leaf, in the kitchens of the Kaveri delta.
Craft
Bronze cast at Swamimalai by the lost-wax method, unchanged since Chola times.
Music
The dance carved into temple walls, which lives on in Bharatanatyam.
By invitation
Watch a bronze come out of its mould in a family foundry at Swamimalai, then see its thousand-year-old ancestors in the temple.
Your Saint: a Chola historian and bronze master
Journeys in this era
travel through this age.
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