Celebration is in the air at Svatma, a luxury hotel in Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. This is the golden jubilee year of property developers Sumanth & Company, owned by Krithika and Sumanth Subramaniam, who renovated the residential 148-year-old building after buying it from a retired college principal. The festivities include a performance of Carnatic, Hindustani and jazz fusion music on the banks of the river Cauvery in Thiruvaiyaru and a classical dance performance in the hotel’s 250-seater colonial hall Divyam.
Through Svatma, Krithika and Sumanth want to make Tamil Nadu a destination of choice for the discerning, for researchers and culturally inclined travel buffs in researching its ancient architectural monuments while enjoying south Indian tradition.
Svatma—which opened in September 2015—is a statement of Tamilian tradition, art, culture and its rich heritage. It is synonomous with south Indian temple architecture, Bharatnatyam and Carnatic music, and was designed by 42-year-old Krithika, an architect from A C Tech College, Chennai. Her husband Sumanth, 50, renovated the property.
“The desire to express the importance of knowing oneself through our tradition by looking deep down into ourselves and recognising our identity is what Svatma is all about. Its logo of two swans looking at themselves signifies the thought of ‘sva’ (self) and ‘atma’ (soul),” says Krithika, also a Bharatnatyam dancer.
The palatial 45,000 square feet heritage building stands like a magnificient palace with columns, courtyards and verandahs from the Chola period. Its 38 luxury heritage rooms are priced from `16,000 to `30,000 per night. The ambience takes guests back to the glorious bygone era of Thanjavur. Pure traditional Thanjavur cuisine cooked with organic ingredients is served in restaurants Aharam, Palaharam and the rooftop Nila. A lunch or dinner for two costs `2,586. The banquet hall can seat 150 guests.
“There are no standard rooms in Svatma. The spaces are envisioned uniquely, with verandahs, hallways, lounges, nooks and secluded corners,” says Krithika. Arogyam is the gym and yoga centre, while Saukyam is a luxury spa. The hotel also has a swimming pool with a jacuzzi. “Ours is boutique architecture as it does not fall into the mainstream category,” says Sumanth. They plan to open three more Svatma hotels.
Some of the projects they have worked on include Chennai’s Convention Centre, high-end apartments in Poes Garden, Balaji Nagar and R A Puram. They also restored the Brihadeeshwarar Temple in Thanjavur to its original magnificience and worked on an aquatic centre at St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean.