How were indians in tanjore assimilating knowledge from foreign cultures before the arrival of the french and the british?

The Tanjore district was loaceted on the eastern part of India. Apart from being a bedrock of Hindu orthodoxy, Tanjore was a centre of the Chola cultural heritage and one of the most prosperous and most richest districts in the Madras Presidency. Before the arrival of the French and the British, Indians in Tanjore were assimilating knowledge from foreign cultures by using dictionaries and reading medical books.