Departing from Madras’s Central Station, the Cōḻan Express bound for Tanjavur passes slowly (despite its name) through the hot arid countryside toward the seacoast and the temple town of Cidambaram, the South Indian center of the Shiva Nataraja (king of dance) cult. Passing Cidambaram, the train enters the lush, rice-growing Kaveri River delta, the heartland of South Indian kings from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries.
Once in Tanjavur, a visitor traveling from Madras can see the magnificent Cōḻaera...