Ministry of Culture, Government of India in collaboration with Indra Gandhi National Centre for the Arts is organising Thanjavur Utsav from 11-13 February 2022. The Utsav will be inaugurated by the Prince of Thanjavur at 0845 am (IST) at South Zone Cultural Centre and Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur. Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance will Address the Utsav at its Valedictory Session on 13 February 2022.
About Thanjavur Utsav - Thanjavur, a millennium old city in Tamilnadu, has been a cultural capital from the time of King Vijayalaya Chola (2 nd half of 9 th CE), who shifted his capital from Uraiyur to this new political citadel. It was however Raja Raja Chola (985CE – 1014CE) who became an emperor with multifaceted interests, who made the city known beyond the shores. His building, the Brihadisvara temple which is now recognised as a world monument by UNESCO, was a centre for religion, philosophy, art, architecture, dance, music and drama with an unsurpassed cultural administration. The longest Tamil
inscription is found in the temple giving amazing details regarding maintaining 400 dancers and about 250 musicians, with the financial commitment from the Government. Raja Raja's acumen in administering his vast empire through the political system of election of heads of villages, maintaining trusts to run temples, provide an excellent irrigation system, maintain a valorous army and navy, encourage artistes and artisans, provide an education system and a well maintained tax collection, are some of the factors which made the Chola rule incomparable.
Thanjavur has the stamp of the Tamil Chola culture to this day in spite of the rule of the Kannada vassals of Vijayanagara dynasty followed by the independent Nayak rulers of Telugu tongue and finally the descendants of Chatrapati Sivaji taking the reins, bringing in Marathi rule. Thanjavur has become an amalgam of these linguistic streams, enriching the native Tamil language and the very design for living. The harmony was of course because of the common Hindu faith, which enabled a beautiful mingling of linguistic groups with identical culture in thought, word and action.
Thanjavur festival has a vision to bring to light the kaleidoscopic cultural facets of the region through a three day festival, saluting the city and those who built and developed it through the millennia. Thanjavur is spoken as the granary of South India, rich in its agriculture, which was responsible for the arts, science and philosophy to flourish. Mother Kaveri, also called Ponni, had endowed great fertility to the region, enabling intellectual, artistic, scientific and metaphysical exercises in the region. The festival is organised by IGNCA, New Delhi. It is planned to be a corridor for scholars, artistes and the common
people to take pride of this heritage.
The event may be watched live on Ministry of Tourism and IGNCA's YouTube and FB.
Thanjavur Utsav Brochure
