The Punnainallur Mariamman Temple, about 5 km east of the Brihadisvara, is one of the most important folk deity shrines in the Thanjavur district. Mariamman — the rain goddess associated with smallpox and healing — attracts enormous crowds during her annual festival, when tens of thousands of devotees from surrounding villages come in procession. The temple is a good example of the "little tradition" of Tamil religiosity that sits alongside, and often predates, the great Agamic temple culture represented by the Brihadisvara.
The structure is far less grand than Thanjavur's famous monuments, but the intensity of devotion is of a different order. The surrounding village of Punnainallur is worth a short walk through — quiet agricultural land with traditional tile-roofed houses close enough to the city to reach by auto-rickshaw in fifteen minutes. The contrast with the palace-museum-temple complex in the town centre is instructive.