Identifier: handbooktravelle00john Title: A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon . Year: 1911 (1910s) Authors: John Murray (Firm) Subjects: India -- Guidebooks Burma -- Guidebooks Sri Lanka -- Guidebooks Publisher: London : J. Murray Calcutta : Thacker, Spink, & Co. Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: t birds-eye view.As an artistic design, nothing can ROUTE 34. TRIVALUR—KUMBAKONAlvr 425 be worse. The gateways irregularlyspaced in a great blank wall lose halftheir dignity from their positions ;and the bathos of their decreasingin size (see p. 426) and elabora-tion as they approach the sanctuaryis a mistake which nothing canredeem. (See also p. Ixxiv. of theIntrod.) 193 m. Kumbakonam station (R.),D.B., in the Tanjore district(population, 64,000). The pagodasstand near the centre of the town,and about l m. from the station. and 15 ft. broad, with shops oneither side, leads to the ShivaPagoda, or Temple of Kumbesh-wara. To the E. side of the road fromthe station to the temples is theMahamokam Tank, a fine tank, intowhich it is said the Ganges flowsonce in twelve years, the last occa-sion having been in 1897. On theseoccasions so vast a concourse ofpeople enter the water to bathe thatthe surface rises some inches. Thetank has sixteen small but pictur-esque pagodas studding its banks.

Text Appearing After Image: Birds-«ye View. Temple of Trivalur. The largest pagoda is dedicatedto Vishnu, and the Great Gopuramhere has eleven storeys. ^ Thetotal height is 147 ft. A streetarched over and 330 ft. long 1 See FergJissons Indian Architecture,>• 394. The principal one is on the N. sideof the tank. The Government College at Kumba-konam was formerly one of the lead-ing educational institutions in India,and procured for the town the dis-tinction of being called the Cambridgeof Southern India. 426 Route 34. kumbakonam—tanjore India 217 m. TANJORE junction station(R.), D.B. * [Branch 48 m. E, toNegapatam, see below]. Lat. 10°47, Long. 79° 10. Population,60,000. The delta of the Cauveryriver, near the head of which Tanjorestands, is considered the garden ofSouthern India. It carries a densepopulation, and is highly irrigated. The Tanjore country was underthe Cholas during the whole of theirsupremacy. Venkaji, the brotherof Shivaji, the Great Mahratta, re-duced Tanjore, proclaimed himselfindepend

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