Tanjavur Palace Complex is situated in the heart of the city of Tanjavur. It is only a few kilometers from here. This Palace used to be the official residence of the Bhonsle family who ruled over Tanjavur from 1674 to 1855. The Palace was originally constructed by the Nayakas of Tanjavur in around 1550 AD. It was later taken over by the Marathas. That’s why it is sometimes called the Maratha Palace of Tanjavur. The Palace complex consists of Sardar Mahal, two Durbar Halls, Queen’s courtyard, Raja Raja Chola Art Gallery, Sarfoji’s Saraswati Mahal Library, Sangeet Mahal and the Schwarz Church. On the southern side of the complex is a Vimana like building 190 feet tall with eight storeys. This building, called Goudagopuram, served as the watch…show more content… These two creatures in their previous life were two Shiva devotees who always fought with each other. One of them, Malyaban, once cursed the other, Pushpaban, to be born as an elephant on Earth. Pushpaban too cursed Malyaban to be born as a spider. Both curses came to be true. The elephant and the spider both chose this place to continue worship of their Lord. The elephant collected water from the Kaveri River and conducted ablution to the Lingam, while the spider spun a web over it to protect it from falling debris like dry leaves. But the elephant destroyed the web taking it to be just another unwanted spider net and washed the Lingam clean. This practice continued non-stop until when the spider became angry and crawled into the trunk of the elephant biting it to death. The spider too had to face the same fatal end within the trunk. Shiva, moved by the devotion of the two, relieved them from their curses. But the spider, because of committing the sin of killing the elephant, had to be reborn. He was born as the king Kochengot Chola who retained his devotion to Shiva and built seventy Shiva temples. Jambukeshwara Temple is one of them. He remembered his enmity with the elephant; so he constructed the entrance door to the Sanctum Sanctorum so small that not even a baby elephant could enter. The door to the Sanctum of this temple is only 4 ft. by 2.5