8 (Throughout Color Illustrations)About the Book Tanjore or Thanjavur, one of the two major cultural zones and political powers and an eminent seat of religion in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Tamilnadu, had been for centuries a great centre of dance, music, architecture and arts - sculpture, woodcraft, metal-cast, mural painting, ete. Though, it was during the last two-three decades that the world bowed to its unique talent and for its brilliant miniature painting. Thanjavur's inherent creative genius turned to miniature painting around the 18th century; when its Maratha rulers brought to it some level of stability and economic prosperity. Temple architecture, or even the art of temple murals and sculptures, was yet a remote possibility, though in dance, music, philosophy, literature, arts and crafts, there was a renaissance and a new cultural and religious awareness was born. The recurring British inroads