Next Stop: Thanjavur

The longest road trip of my Indian adventure fell on the fifth day of the land tour.  Right after breakfast, we would be (sorrowfully) checking out of our gorgeous resort hotel on the Bay of Bengal and traveling inland to the city of Thanjavur, also known as Tanjore.  It would take about five or six hours to cover the distance of 125 miles although we’d be making some stops along the way.  To fortify myself for several hours on the road, I indulged in some of my favorites at the breakfast buffet:  idlis, pongal, and vadas (those savory doughnuts).  You know you’re on vacation when the most pressing decision you have to make all day is how many vadas to eat at breakfast.   

A typical Indian breakfast

How many vedas shall I eat today?

Not long after leaving Mamallapuram, I got my first look at an Indian highway.  We shared the road with the usual assortment of motor scooters with multiple passengers, public buses, pickup trucks filled with people riding in the back, and even a few cars.  The biggest surprise was being stopped at a checkpoint by uniformed officials who wanted to inspect our vehicle.  After our driver negotiated the cost of whatever “violations” they uncovered, we were free to go on our way. 

From the windows of our bus, we looked out at rice paddies and fields of sugar cane and turmeric.  From Jaisingh, I learned that the rice turns brown when it’s ripe, so the green rice paddies meant the rice wasn’t yet ready to harvest.  In this climate, rice grows year round, resulting in three or four harvests per year.  India is self-sufficient when it comes to rice and grain production, and exports its surplus to the Arab world and Africa. 

After an hour or so, I was about to doze off, but I perked up when Jaisingh started giving us more fascinating tidbits of information about Indian society.  For example, did you know that more Muslims live in India than in Pakistan?  The religious breakdown of the country is as follows:  80% Hindu, 15% Muslim, 2.8% Christian (mostly Roman Catholic), 1.7% Sikh (a hybrid between Hinduism and Islam), and smaller percentages of Buddhists, Jains, and Jews.  Although India is the birthplace of Buddhism, very few Indians identify as Buddhists.  Jains are so committed to non-violence that they don’t even pick fruits or vegetables – they wait for them to fall to the ground.  And about 10,000 Jews live in India today, primarily in Mumbai and Calcutta. 

Jaisingh described India as a country that manages to live in several different centuries at one time.  This was abundantly clear when we discussed topics such as caste, social mobility, arranged marriages, dowries, and honor killings. 

The caste system that developed thousands of years ago is still an important part of Hinduism, and it is much more complex than I previously realized.  There are four main castes, but these are divided into over 3,000 sub-castes.  Until fairly recently, the sub-caste determined the work a person would do, who that person could marry, and that person’s place in society.  For example, the silk weaver we saw in Kanchipuram was a member of a silk-weavers’ sub-caste and his trade had been passed along from one generation to the next. 

The main castes are Brahmins (formerly the priests), Kshatriyas (formerly the warriors), Vaishiya (formerly those who worked in agriculture, commerce and business), and Shudra (formerly the servants). Dalits (the “untouchables”) are not even part of the caste system.  Today, dalits make up 16% of the population.

While economic opportunities have opened up for people of all castes, as well as for dalits, it is still nearly impossible to move up the ladder in social terms.  Families tend to socialize almost exclusively with others from the same caste.  Since most marriages are still arranged by the parents, young people generally marry someone from the same background.  Romance that crosses caste lines is nearly always met with strong family disapproval, which sometimes takes extreme forms.  Checking the day’s local English language newspaper, we found a story about a recent honor killing.  In this case, a father who disapproved of his daughter’s romantic interest in a young man was found guilty of arranging for the young man’s murder.  While I was in India, I noticed similar stories in the newspaper nearly every day.  

We were still questioning Jaisingh when we pulled over to a road-side Aswin’s restaurant for our scheduled lunch break.  Aswin’s is a small-scale Tamil Nadu-based company that produces sweets and savory snacks, and their factory was located adjacent to the restaurant.  After our meal, we were able to get a tour of the factory.  After we put on disposable hairnets, we were ushered in to watch the workers, primarily women from local villages, as they went through the entire production process.  Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photographs inside the facility.  Some simple machinery was used but much of the work was done by hand.  The majority of the snack items were deep fried, and I didn’t envy the women standing over the hot pots of bubbling oil.  We got a few yummy samples along the way.  My favorite is the murukku, a crispy coil of lightly spiced dough. 

As soon as we checked into our hotel in Thanjavur later in the afternoon, I set out in search of a grocery store, where I found a package of murukku.  I brought it back home from India but I’ve nearly finished the package.  I hope I can find them in a local Indian market since I am now hopelessly addicted to them.  

Prior to dinner, we enjoyed a performance of Bharata Natyam, the classical dance of Tamil Nadu, at our hotel.  This is an ancient form of dance that was originally performed in temples and royal courts.  The beautiful costumes, make-up, facial expressions and mudras (hand gestures) all contribute to the storytelling.

The young dancers who performed for us 

The following day, we had a very full agenda of sites to visit in Thanjavur.  Our first stop was the Brihadishwara Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, dating back to the 11^th century when the region was ruled by the Chola dynasty.  I have to use a lot of superlatives when describing this temple.  It’s the biggest stone monument in India, weighing in at 80 tons (how did they weigh it? I wonder).  Jaisingh told us that the builders made a six-kilometer long dirt ramp to move the huge blocks of granite to the site.  The temple also the tallest ancient monument in India, measuring 59 meters high in its Sanctum Santorum.  It has the biggest Shiva lingam (the phallic representation of Shiva).  And it has the second biggest stone Nandi (the sacred bull of Shiva).  The architecture reminded me of the Dravidian temples we had visited in Kanchipuram. 

The city of Thanjavur, which was the capital of the Chola rulers, is especially known for its bronze work.  We visited a small bronze foundry where we learned about the process of making bronze sculpture using the lost wax method.  Most of the sculptors are Brahmins since statues are images of gods.  The first step in the process is to make a model out of honey and tree wax.  

The wax model is covered with a mixture of clay and sand, leaving a couple of holes in the surface.  

After three days of drying, this is fired, during which time the wax melts and flows out.  Next, a mixture of metals (usually 85% copper, 10% zinc, and 5% tin, although silver and gold may also be included) is heated in a special cup over an open fire to a temperature of over 1200 degrees.  The molten metal is then poured into the clay mold.  

After cooling for a day, the mold is broken open with a hammer and the solid bronze figure is released.  Finishing details are added to the statue with a tiny hammer and a file before it is polished.  The final step is the ritual opening of the statue’s eyes, which, according to tradition, a ceremony which must be performed between 4 and 6 in the afternoon.

After a biryani lunch at a local restaurant, we continued on to Thanjavur’s 16^th century palace complex.  The palace was built by Chola rulers and showed the influence of Muslim architecture.  (Note that while Muslims conquered much of northern India, they never controlled Tamil Nadu.)  

In the palace’s museum, we saw many beautiful bronzes, such as an 11^th century Shiva Natarajar (dancing Shiva).  You can see a detail of the statue in the photo below.

We also saw a variety of stone sculptures, including a 12^th century Ardhanarishwara, a composite form of the god Shiva and his female consort Parvati.  As you can see in the following photo, the figure is split down the middle to show both male and female characteristics.

Following our palace visit, we stopped off at the studio of a veena maker.  The veena is a traditional Indian musical instrument, resembling a sitar.  The body of the veena is made from a single piece of wood from the jackfruit tree.  This 7-stringed instrument is only made in Thanjavur.  We were lucky that a well-known veena player happened to be in the studio while we were there.  He treated us to an impromptu concert. 

Finally, we capped off a very full day by hopping into auto-rickshaws and heading off into residential neighborhoods of Thanjavur to have dinner at the homes of local families.  The home-hosted meal is a signature feature of every O.A.T. tour.  My group of four women spent the evening with three generations of an English-speaking Indian family.  The home-cooked meal was delicious and the two-year old girl was adorable, but what’s most memorable was the conversation we had with the mother and grandmother of the family.  It was gratifying to see how woman-to-woman connections can overcome cultural differences.  I’m extremely grateful to O.A.T. for giving us this opportunity.