Tiruvarur

     Tiruvarur is one of the oldest towns which have been popular as cultural headquarters for many centuries. This ancient town in Chola heartland is famous Sri Thyagaraja temple as well as annual chariot festival held in the month of April.  In this temple there is an excellent and unique musical instrument called ‘Panchamuga Vadyam” with five faces.  Each face is ornamented one with a snake, another with lotus and another one is plain without decorations.  One has Swastik sign. Over each face leather is spread and over the central one Deerskinis spread.  It is said tht nachi Devi Played on this instrument when Lord Shiva danced.  Tiruvarur also happens to be the birth place of the Carnatic Music Trinity of Tyagaraja, Muthswami Dikshitar and Syama Sastri. This temple is one of the biggest in the country and this has the biggest temple chariot in Tamil Nadu. The current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Dr. M.Karunanidhi, was born in the village of Thiruvarur, and spent his childhood here.  The District of Tiruvarur has been carved out as a separate district due to trifurcation of Thanjavur District. According to this division, 7 taluks namely Kudavasal, Thiruvarur,  Needamangalam, Mannargudi, Nannilam, Thirutturaippoondi and Valangaiman were detached from Thanjavur district to form this new district. At present also this district is comprised of seven taluks and ten Community development Blocks.  Tiruvarur lies in the Kaveri River basin and the main occupation of the inhabitants of Tiruvarur and surrounding areas is agriculture.

Mannargudi

     The most important Vaishnavaite shrine is here.  It has the name Rajamannargudi as the presiding deity here is Rajagopalaswamy.  The shrine is spread over 15 acres. The image of the presiding deity Rajagopalaswamy is 12 feet tall.  There are 16 gopurams, 7 prakarams with 24 shrines, 7 beautiful mandapams adorning the inside and 9 sacred theerthams.  There is a Garuda Sthamba, a monolithic pillar 50 ft.  tall in the forefront with a miniature Garuda shrine on the top. The sacred waters Haridra Nadhi is only a tank but bigger than Kamalalayam at Thiruvarur.  The place is also called Dakshina Dwaraka , Dwaraka of the South.  ‘Par Pughalum Panguni Triuvizha’ will be celebrated every year during the month of March. All the temples that are found in Tanjore district are said to be greatest and have lots of great Perumals found.  One among such temples is Mannargudi – Sri Rajagopalswamy temple. A Proverb, which explains the greatness of Mannargudi, is “Kovil Paadhi Kulam Paadhi” This proverb explains that half (Paadhi) of this mannargudi Kshetram is surrounded by temple (Kovil) and rest by Kulam (Pond). Mannargudi is found on the South-east part of Tanjore and there are lots of bus facilities are available from Tanjore, Kumbakonam etc. In this Mannargudi,  other saivam temples are also found which are also said to be greatest.  In Telugu, “Gudi” means temple. Since, Sri Rajagopalaswamy who is also called with the name “ Rajamannar”, this sthalam is popularly called as “Rajamannar Gudi”. Mannargudi sthalam is also called with other names like, Mannarkoyil, Rajamannargudi, Shanbakaranja vandwarapathy, Dhakshina Dwaraka and Vasudevapur.  The specialty of this sthalam is that it is said that if we stay for a night in this sthalam, we will get the credit. Which is equivalent to Donating 1000 cows to someone this is well explained by Pulasthiyar.  He explains the greatness of this sthalam to Bheeshmar as stated in Mahabharatha as “Thathroshya Rajaneemaykaam Kosahasra balam bhavethi”. Once Jainism seems to have flourished in this part as there are evidences of Jain statues in the vicinity.  Mallinathaswami Jinalayam is in the middle of a Jain locality. Meru Parvatham, Padmavathi Amman, Nandiswaradeepam and Trikala Tirthankarar are worth seeing in this Jainalayam.