The Saraswathi Mahal Library is in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India, within the campus of the Thanjavur palace. It was established in the 16th century and is described as one of the oldest surviving libraries in Asia. The Nayak kings of Thanjavur, who ruled from 1535 to 1676, founded it as a royal library for their family's use.
The Marathas captured Thanjavur in 1675 and developed the palace library until 1855. Serfoji II, a Maratha king and scholar who reigned from 1798 to 1832, expanded the collection by employing pandits to collect, buy and copy works from across northern India and beyond. The library opened to the public in 1918 and was designated a Manuscript Conservation Centre in 2003.
The collection holds well over 49,000 volumes, including about 39,300 manuscripts in Tamil and Sanskrit, and 3,076 Marathi manuscripts. Notable holdings include Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1784 and ancient world maps.
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