India Guide
Tamil Nadu
Thirumalai Nayak Palace
Price: Rs50; sound-and-light Rs10
Opening time: Daily 9am–1pm & 2–5pm; sound-and-light 6.45–7.30pm
Address: 1.5km southeast of the Meenakshi Temple
Roughly a quarter survives of the seventeenth-century Thirumalai Nayak Palace . Much of it was dismantled by Thirumalai's grandson, Chockkanatha Nayak, and used for a new palace at Tiruchirapalli; what remains today was renovated in 1858 by the governor of Chennai, Lord Napier, and again in 1971 for the Tamil World Conference. The palace originally consisted of two residential sections, plus a theatre, private temple, harem, royal bandstand, armoury and gardens.
The surviving building, the Swargavilasa ("Heavenly Pavilion"), is a rectangular courtyard, flanked by 18m-tall colonnades. As well as occasional live performances of music and dance, the Tourism Department arranges a nightly Sound-and-Light Show, which relates the story of the Tamil epic, Shilipaddikaram, and the history of the Nayaks. Some find the spectacle edifying, and others soporific – especially when the quality of the tape is poor. In an adjoining hall, the Palace Museum (same hours and ticket) includes unlabelled Pandyan, Jain and Buddhist sculpture, terracottas and an eighteenth-century print showing the palace in a dilapidated state.