Location
Saraswathi Mahal library is situated inside the Thanjavur palace and was earlier known as Saraswathi Bandar which means the collection place of books and manuscripts. This library was established around the year 1700 AD.
Oldest scripts in palm leaves as well as in paper and a large number of foreign books are part of the collection in this library. Many of the manuscripts are written either in Tamil or Sanskrit. The Maratha king Serfoji II took special interest to enrich the collection in this library. The library is divided into seven sections for convenience and each section has different groups of books, manuscripts, atlases, paintings etc.