TANJORE, a town which givem its name to a district in the 3Iadms Presidency. The district has an area of 365,t square miles, and in 1881 a popu lation of 2,130,383. It iR bounded on the north by the Colerun, and it has the Bay of Bengal on the east. The delta of the Cauvery occupies the flat northern part of the district, whiell is highly culti vated with rice, (lotted with grovesof cocoanuttrees. This part is thoroughly irrigated by an extensive network of channels connecting the different parts of the delta. South-west of the town of Tanjore the country is somewhat more elevated, especially about Vellum. Tanjore was conquered by Shah ji, father of Sivaji, about 1659. The 3Ialtrattas, ill A.D. 1678, held Tanjore under Venkaji, brother of the Great Sivaji.
During the 18th century, the possession of this province was greatly contested. In 1762, the raja of Tanjore agreed to pay tribute to the Nawab Walajah of the Gametic. In 1771, the Tanjore raja, Tuljaji, son of Pertab Singh, with the aid of the British, subjected the Polygar of Ranmad, but a peace being arranged unknown to the 13ritish, the raja was compelled to cede the fort of Vellum, and the districts of Koiladdi and Elang.ar. In 1773, the British made prisoners of the raja and his family, but lie was restored, llth .April 1776, on a treaty to submit to the E. I. Company. In 1787, Tuljaji died, and was succeeded by his half-brother, Amir Singh. But Tuljaji had adopted Sarfoji, and after a time Amir Singh WaS set aside, and Sarfoji reinstated. Sar foji died in 1832, and was succeeded by his only son Sivaji, on whose death in 1855, without male heirs, direct or collateral, the titular dignity became extinct. His daughter obtained a title of princess. He bad three queens, Syudaunnal Bei Kamatche Bai bahiball, and Pathuma Bei Sabiball. By the first of these he had two daughtera, but, having no male issue by any of the three, Ile sent his prime minister to Poona for damsels from his own kindred. Seventeen were selected for the raja and his nobles, but on arrival they claimed to be the raja's brides, and threatened to destroy themselves, on which the raja married the whole of them, the British Government sanction ing Rs. 6,72,000 for the expenses. Even by these seventeen the raja had no male issue, and he took sixty-nine concubines, by whom lie had thirteen daughters and nine sons. The raja died on Tues day, October 29, 1855, in his 49th year.
Raja Sarfoji was exceedingly fond of Schwartz, helped hint liberally with funds, and gave hint lands at Canandagoody for it mission, and also the site on which the mission-house, church, etc., are built. He established a boarding-school for Schwartz, and gave him the cultivated lands at Sediangal, from the produce of which the boardels were supported. These lands still support the mission at Tanjore. Ile repaimd the great temple ttt Tanjore, laying down stones all through the courtyard, and also performed for it the Koomba bhashagam, or regildiug of the Kalasaut. Ile also repaired several other temples in and around Tan jore, all of which cost him Rs. 8,66,700.
The district front pre-historic times has been largely irrigated by means of canals and dams, from the Cauvery and from the Colerun, but chiefly from the former, the Colerun, which forms the boundary of Tanjore, on account of its low level, being less utilized. The main branch of the Cauvery enters the Tanjore district 8 miles east of Trichinopoly, and spreads out into innn merable small channels, which form a vast net work extending down to the sea, aud converts the northern portion of the district into one rice-field. Near the western boundary of Tanjore, the Cau very and Colerun approach each other, and here in some ancient time a masonry dam, called the Grand Anicut, has been constructed to prevent the waters of the Cauvery being drawn off into the Colerun, the bed of which is here 9 or 10 feet lower. It is said to have been constructed by a king of the Chola dynasty in the 3d century A.D. The works in the early part of the 19th century were improved by Captain Caldwell and Captain (Sir Arthur) Cotton of the Madras Engineers, by means of many regulating dams and calingulas or waste weirs. In the area of 900,000 acres now irrigated, the total revenue in 1875-76 was £463,350.
Upwards of 90 per cent. of the population are Hindus, 5 per cent. Mubammadans, and 3 per cent. Christians. Brahmans in 1871 numbered 126,757 ; the Vellalar, a great agricultural race, were 348,400 ; the Vanniar, labourers, 574,789 ; Pariahs, 306,569 ; Satani and Pandaran sectarians, 49,763. The Muhammadans are chiefly Labbai or Yonakar, a race of mixed descent from Arab fathers and women of the country. The largest towns in the district are Tanjore, Combaconum, Myaveram, Tranquebar, and Manaargudi. At Tanjore is a great Saiva temple, the finest of the pyrantidal temples of India. In 1777, it was fortified by the French, a,nd has not again been reconsecrated. The pyramid rises in thirteen storeys to a height of 190 feet. A figure of the bull Nandi faces the temple, and there are several smaller shrines in the enclosure. The sculptures on the gopuras relate to Vishnu, while every thing in the courtyard is dedicated to Siva. It is said to have been erected in the 14th century by Kadu Vettiya, a Soran or ChoIan king, and the statues of the courtyard may have been subsequent.
Romish missions date from the first half of the 17th century ; and at Negapatam a French Society of Jesus, in 1846, founded the College of St. Joseph. In 1706, the German Protestant mis sionaries Ziegenbald and Plutschan established a Lutheran mission at Tranquebar, under the \patronage of Frederic iv. of Denmark, and about the middle of the century the Reverend C. F. Schwartz established another mission ; and mis sionaries are now proselytizing there under the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Tan jore is famed for its carpets, jewellery, repousse work, and copper wares.—Pharoah's Directory ; Imp. Gaz.7 Horsburgh.