Temple Towns of the Kaveri Delta

The Kaveri, the great river of the Tamil south, spreads into a green delta that was the heartland of the Chola empire — and no stretch of India is more densely woven with living temples. This circuit follows the river through its temple-towns. It begins with the two imperial Chola statements in stone: Brihadeeswarar at Thanjavur, the thousand-year-old Big Temple, and its echo at Gangaikonda Cholapuram, with the jewel-like Airavatesvara at Darasuram nearby — together the UNESCO Great Living Chola Temples. From there it turns to the towns where devotion still fills the streets: Kumbakonam, where Sarangapani descends from Vaikuntha in a stone chariot; Thiruvarur, with its vast tank, its record-breaking temple car, and its memory as the cradle of Carnatic music; and Srirangam, the island shrine at the delta's head where Vishnu reclines in the largest living temple on earth. Taken slowly, it is a single journey through the old heart of the south.

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