Rajaraja Chola's Thanjavur Palace: Seat of an Empire

Episode 137 of The Chola Empire podcast takes you inside the heart of Chola power: the royal palace at Thanjavur. While the Brihadeeswarar temple dominates the skyline, the palace complex was the nerve center of administration, ceremony, and daily life under Rajaraja Chola I. We explore what little archaeology and inscriptions reveal about the palace's layout, the role of the palatial bureaucracy (including the udankuttam, the king's inner circle), and how the palace functioned as a redistribution hub for tribute, grain, and gold. We also discuss the palace's relationship with the temple, the royal harem, and the mysterious 'thousand-pillared hall' mentioned in contemporary records. How did Rajaraja's palace compare to other contemporary courts, like the Abbasids or the Song? And what does the silence in the sources — no grand chronicle, no palace ruins above ground — tell us about Chola priorities? #CholaEmpire #Thanjavur #RajarajaCholaI #SouthIndianHistory #MedievalIndia #PalaceArchitecture #TamilHistory #Brihadeeswarar #Udankuttam #CholaAdministration #RoyalCourt #IndianOcean #History #FexingoHistory #TamilNadu #Kaveri #SoutheastAsia #MedievalPalaces Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo