The Thanjavur Art Gallery, housed in the Nayaka hall of the Royal Palace, holds one of the best collections of Chola bronze sculpture in India. The centrepiece is a series of Nataraja figures in various sizes and periods — the cosmic dance of Shiva represented with a formal vocabulary that the Chola craftsmen refined to its highest point between the 9th and 13th centuries. The hall also contains stone sculptures from the same period: Parvati, Vishnu, and Durga figures of considerable quality.
What makes this gallery especially useful for a visitor is the combination of good lighting, relatively small crowds, and the absence of the barrier glass that prevents close examination in larger national museums. You can stand close enough to see tool marks on a bronze casting, the layering of alloy in a weathered piece, the fine chasing on jewellery details. The Art Gallery of Chennai has a larger Chola collection overall, but Thanjavur lets you look at the objects.
Entry is included in the Royal Palace complex ticket. The gallery is open daily except Fridays.