During his reign, his powers were ceded to the British East India Company, leaving him and his descendants as titular Maharajas of Thanjavur.

His early education begun at Civilian Orphan Asylum, now known as St. George School on Poonamalle High Road, Chennai from 1793-1797.

[6] In return, Serfoji became entitled to one-fifth of the state's land revenue and an annual pension of 100,000 star pagodas.

His library included treatises on Vedanta, grammar, music, dance and drama, architecture, astronomy, medicine, training of elephants and horses, etc.

He sent many Pundits including Aarur Swai ||ANIRUDRA|| Thyagarajar Iyer and puthukotai Adhi Nayagam Pillai far and wide and collected huge number of books and manuscripts for this Library.

Apart from these, the Library contains a record of the day-to-day proceedings of the Maratha court known as the Modi documents, French-Maratha correspondence of the 18th century.

Serfoji founded a school called Navavidhya Kalanidhi Sala where languages, literature, the sciences and arts and crafts were taught in addition to the Vedas and shastras.

Serfoji assembled a stone type printing press in 1805, called "Nava Vidya Kalasala Varnayantra" which was the first to use the Devanagari script in southern India.

It is said that Sir Alexander Johnston, the Chief Justice of Ceylon requested a book from the printing press and in return, received a Marathi translation of Aesop's Fables.

Based on the medical prescriptions stored at the Dhanvanthri Mahal, a set of poems were compiled detailing the procedures to cure various diseases.

Serfoji was also keenly interested in painting, gardening, coin-collecting, martial arts and patronized chariot-racing, hunting and bull-fighting.

The five story Sarjah Mahadi in the Thanjavur palace and the Manora Fort Tower at Saluvanayakanpattinam were constructed in Serfoji's reign.

He installed lightning rods at the top of these monuments and had the history of the Bhonsle Dynasty inscribed on the south-western wall of the Brihadeeswara Temple.

Memories of the pilgrimage have survived to the present day in the paintings of the bathing ghats on the Ganges and the different holy sites commissioned by him.

While many rajahs were engrossed in fighting and civil wars, Serfoji ushered in an era of peace, prosperity and scientific development and pioneered new administrative and educational reforms.

His vision helped Thanjavur forge ahead of other princely states and advance into a new age and emerge as a fitting competitor to European nations.