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Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) is a sleepy town closer to Chennai on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The name Mahabalipuram is derived from the Pallava kings offering “Maha Bali” to their family deity Durga. You can see a sculpture of goddess Durga with a beheaded animal in front of her. It appears that Mrs Indira Gandhi renamed it as Mamallapuram, meaning maha malla (warrior) puram. It was the second biggest city and the biggest port of the Pallavas. It is now famous for sculpturing, beach and resorts. It draws tourists from all over the world. I was surprised to see quite a few French tourists there. They might prefer this place because it is closer to the erstwhile French colony of Pondicherry and you can find local guides speaking French here.
We stayed at a beach side resort. The beach here is very sandy. There are warnings against swimming. I did not like the humidity as it was 85%! The town depends on tourism and sculpturing. Sculpturing was supported here from the days of the Pallavas. They have a sculpturing college here and the main road is teaming with the handicrafts workshops and shops. They transport different types of stones from Rajasthan and the sand stone from the east coast. High density black granite is available locally. They follow what they call as “South Indian Style” of sculpture.
The Pallavas ruled the South of Tamil Nadu from the middle of 6 th to the middle of 8 th centuries AD. They were not the descendants of the Pahlavis, the Persians. Their kingdom extended from Orissa in the North to the Southern Ponnar River in the South; from the Bay of Bengal in the east to Salem and Bangalore on the West. They were defeated frequently by the Chalukyas of Karnataka. They were eliminated by the Cholas of Tamilnadu.
They were not interested in wars, but in building temples. The shore temple has been reclaimed from the sea recently and adjacent to it is a moorti of blend of elephant, varaha and Nandi which they excavated in 2003. The British and the Indian Archaeological Society have found the palace submerged under the Bay of Bengal recently.
The
main attraction is the chariots of Pandavas. Anything numbered 5 here goes with the Pandavas! The tourist guide told me that the first king of Pallavas started the construction and he could not complete it as the Chalukyas of Badami invaded and destroyed it. When I asked him why not his descendents could complete it, he had no answer! I also found it hard to believe that the Chalukyas had actually destroyed it as they were also Hindus. The whole complex of 5 temples is carved in a monolithic stone. It is barely 300 m from the sea. The British excavated it 200 years. The first one is dedicated to the goddess Durga and is called Draupadi Ratha.The second to Lord Shiva and called Arjuna Ratha. The third one is a huge Bhima Ratha, dedicated to Vishnu. The tallest is the Dharma raja Ratha and the fifth, Nakula Sahadeva Ratha, dedicated to Indra. You can find a blend of different styles like the Dravidian, Buddhist, North Indian, Roman, Greek and the Chinese! It shows how well connected and influenced these Pallavas were. I was also amazed because they had deities of Shaivism and Vaishnavism of Hinduism as well as nature Gods like Sun God, Indra, etc. However, each chariot is unique by itself. They were supposed to have wheels; but could not be completed because of the defeat. Pallavas seem to be the originators of the South Indian style of sculpture, later perfected by the Cholas.
The next stop was at the Arjuna’s penance place. The motif has no carving of Arjuna on it.
It is a series of carvings on a huge boulder depicting Gangavatarana by Bhagiratha. It shows how plagiarism exists in our society for ages! Adjacent to this is a group of five caves They are again named after the Pandavas! They are unfinished. You can find carvings of Govardhanagiridhari Krishna here. It is dedicated to Krishna’s leelas. 
I found a carving of a face resembling the zorastrian style! There are carvings in Egyptian, Roman and other styles as well.
Krishna’s butter ball is very interesting.
It is nearly a rounded rock balanced on a hillock. It is amazing how it has withstood the test of weather. 
I asked the guide to take my picture against the backdrop of the backdrop of butter ball pretending to lift it. A few tourists gathered around me to see what I was doing. Some of them continued to grin at me the whole day whenever we met! The guide took me to the unfinished temple behind the Caves. There is no need to make any special mention about it. What is so important is the emergence of the Dravidian temple architecture. The symbol of the Pal lava dynasty, simha, is nicely carved here. There are carvings on the ceiling which you can see in Kanjeevaram sarees even today.
Our next stop was the shore temple. It is called so because it is on the sea shore. Mrs Indira Gandhi had visited this temple and took special interest in developing it so that mahabalipuram is now one of the World Heritage centres. These are twin? Temples, the style resembles that of konark temple in Orissa.
I found mahabalipuram quite humid, it was 85%! And I cannot stand it. I did not find many tourists lazing around on the sand either. The hotel i stayed in was very luxurious and anyway, these things do not impress me as long as basic necessities are taken care of. One can spend a day here for sightseeing and another for lazing around. There are a series of resorts along the east coast. The resort I was staying in had swimming pool and bikes.
Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) is a sleepy town closer to Chennai on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The name Mahabalipuram is derived from the Pallava kings offering “Maha Bali” to their family deity Durga. You can see a sculpture of goddess Durga with a beheaded animal in front of her. It appears that Mrs Indira Gandhi renamed it as Mamallapuram, meaning maha malla (warrior) puram. It was the second biggest city and the biggest port of the Pallavas. It is now famous for sculpturing, beach and resorts. It draws tourists from all over the world. I was surprised to see quite a few French tourists there. They might prefer this place because it is closer to the erstwhile French colony of Pondicherry and you can find local guides speaking French here.
We stayed at a beach side resort. The beach here is very sandy. There are warnings against swimming. I did not like the humidity as it was 85%! The town depends on tourism and sculpturing. Sculpturing was supported here from the days of the Pallavas. They have a sculpturing college here and the main road is teaming with the handicrafts workshops and shops. They transport different types of stones from Rajasthan and the sand stone from the east coast. High density black granite is available locally. They follow what they call as “South Indian Style” of sculpture.
The Pallavas ruled the South of Tamil Nadu from the middle of 6 th to the middle of 8 th centuries AD. They were not the descendants of the Pahlavis, the Persians. Their kingdom extended from Orissa in the North to the Southern Ponnar River in the South; from the Bay of Bengal in the east to Salem and Bangalore on the West. They were defeated frequently by the Chalukyas of Karnataka. They were eliminated by the Cholas of Tamilnadu.
They were not interested in wars, but in building temples. The shore temple has been reclaimed from the sea recently and adjacent to it is a moorti of blend of elephant, varaha and Nandi which they excavated in 2003. The British and the Indian Archaeological Society have found the palace submerged under the Bay of Bengal recently.
The
main attraction is the chariots of Pandavas. Anything numbered 5 here goes with the Pandavas! The tourist guide told me that the first king of Pallavas started the construction and he could not complete it as the Chalukyas of Badami invaded and destroyed it. When I asked him why not his descendents could complete it, he had no answer! I also found it hard to believe that the Chalukyas had actually destroyed it as they were also Hindus. The whole complex of 5 temples is carved in a monolithic stone. It is barely 300 m from the sea. The British excavated it 200 years. The first one is dedicated to the goddess Durga and is called Draupadi Ratha.The second to Lord Shiva and called Arjuna Ratha. The third one is a huge Bhima Ratha, dedicated to Vishnu. The tallest is the Dharma raja Ratha and the fifth, Nakula Sahadeva Ratha, dedicated to Indra. You can find a blend of different styles like the Dravidian, Buddhist, North Indian, Roman, Greek and the Chinese! It shows how well connected and influenced these Pallavas were. I was also amazed because they had deities of Shaivism and Vaishnavism of Hinduism as well as nature Gods like Sun God, Indra, etc. However, each chariot is unique by itself. They were supposed to have wheels; but could not be completed because of the defeat. Pallavas seem to be the originators of the South Indian style of sculpture, later perfected by the Cholas.The next stop was at the Arjuna’s penance place. The motif has no carving of Arjuna on it.
It is a series of carvings on a huge boulder depicting Gangavatarana by Bhagiratha. It shows how plagiarism exists in our society for ages! Adjacent to this is a group of five caves They are again named after the Pandavas! They are unfinished. You can find carvings of Govardhanagiridhari Krishna here. It is dedicated to Krishna’s leelas. 
I found a carving of a face resembling the zorastrian style! There are carvings in Egyptian, Roman and other styles as well.Krishna’s butter ball is very interesting.
It is nearly a rounded rock balanced on a hillock. It is amazing how it has withstood the test of weather. 
I asked the guide to take my picture against the backdrop of the backdrop of butter ball pretending to lift it. A few tourists gathered around me to see what I was doing. Some of them continued to grin at me the whole day whenever we met! The guide took me to the unfinished temple behind the Caves. There is no need to make any special mention about it. What is so important is the emergence of the Dravidian temple architecture. The symbol of the Pal lava dynasty, simha, is nicely carved here. There are carvings on the ceiling which you can see in Kanjeevaram sarees even today.
Our next stop was the shore temple. It is called so because it is on the sea shore. Mrs Indira Gandhi had visited this temple and took special interest in developing it so that mahabalipuram is now one of the World Heritage centres. These are twin? Temples, the style resembles that of konark temple in Orissa.
I found mahabalipuram quite humid, it was 85%! And I cannot stand it. I did not find many tourists lazing around on the sand either. The hotel i stayed in was very luxurious and anyway, these things do not impress me as long as basic necessities are taken care of. One can spend a day here for sightseeing and another for lazing around. There are a series of resorts along the east coast. The resort I was staying in had swimming pool and bikes.
