Thanjavur Art Gallery (Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery)

The Thanjavur Art Gallery, also known as the Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery in honor of the temple-building Chola emperor associated with the city, occupies galleries within the Thanjavur Maratha Palace complex. Its core holdings are bronze icons of Hindu deities produced using the traditional lost-wax casting method, with the majority of pieces dated to the Chola period between the 9th and 13th centuries CE, supplemented by later works from the post-Chola, Nayak, and Maratha periods spanning the 17th and 18th centuries. The gallery's stone sculpture collection, gathered from temples across the Thanjavur region, complements the bronzes, together offering one of the most concentrated surveys of South Indian devotional sculpture anywhere in Tamil Nadu. Because Thanjavur was the capital of the Chola empire at the height of its temple-building and bronze-casting patronage, the gallery's collection is frequently cited by art historians as a benchmark for understanding the stylistic evolution of Chola bronze work, from the Brihadeeswarar Temple's era through later dynastic changes.