a town of British India, capital of a district of the same name, in the presidency of Madras, in a large and fertile plain on a branch of the Cauvery, 30 miles E. of Trichinopoly, and 180 S.W. of Madras. It consists of two forts connected together, and several suburbs. The greater fort, which is about 4 miles in circumference, is enclosed by a high embattled wall, and a ditch partly filled with water and partly dry. The smaller fort is about a mile in circuit, and has very strong and well-constructed defences. The streets of Tanjore are very irregular; and of the houses some are well built of brick, while many in the town itself, and almost all in the suburbs, are mere mud hovels. In the middle of the greater fort stands the palace of the rajah, an ancient though unfinished building, with several high towers. It contains a fine hall of audience, with black stone pillars and roof; but as this hall is considered unlucky, a much inferior one is used in its stead. The palace contains also a library, hung with portraits, of all the Mahratta princes of Tanjore. In the smaller fort stands the great pagoda, which is considered the finest building of the kind in India. The size of the exterior court, which is in shape oblong, is 570 feet by 200; and over the shrine rises a pyramidal tower 100 feet high. Over the porch is a colossal figure of a bull carved in black granite, a fine specimen of Indian art. Tanjore Tannahill contains numerous smaller pagodas, and infantry barracks. Silk, muslin, and cotton are made here. Pop. estimated at 80,000.

The district of Tanjore is bounded on the N.W. by those of South Ascot and Trichinopoly, E. and S.E. by the Bay of Bengal, S.W. by the district of Madura, and W. by the native states of Poodoocottah and Trichinopoly. Length from N.E. to S.W. 120 miles; breadth, 75; area, 3900 square miles. It is a low, level, and alluvial country, the northern and larger part of which is occupied by the delta of the Cauvery, which river, when swelled by the rains that fall in the mountains, rolls a sufficient volume of water to irrigate, and sometimes to overflow the country. The largest branch, called the Coleroon, forms the northern boundary of the district; and the other, or Cauvery proper, divides into a number of small channels, which are prevented from overflowing the land by large embankments, and made to fertilize the soil by an extensive and ingenious system of irrigation. Probably no part of India, with the exception of some tracts in the Ganges' valley, exceeds in fertility this district. The coast is low and sandy, affording no good harbours or anchorages. In 1678 Tanjore was conquered by the Mahratta chief Vencajee, brother of Sevaje; and from him the line of rajahs was descended. In the reign of the Rajah Toolajee, the nabob of Arcot, supported by the Madras government, laid claim to tribute from Tanjore, and the rajah was deposed; but was subsequently restored on consenting to pay not only the tribute but a subsidy for a British force in Tanjore. After this first alliance with the British in 1781, a dispute in the succession between Serfojee and Ameer Sing occurring in 1787, was settled by the British government in favour of the latter; but he was deposed, and Serfojee elevated to the throne in 1798. The new rajah, in the following year, sold his dignity for an annual payment, retaining only the title and the government of the capital; and subsequently the reigning family became extinct. Pop. (1851) 1,676,086.