MAHABALIPURAM TEMPLE.

TEMPLE’S OF MAHABALIPURAM

Ø    Mahabalipuram,derived from 'Mamallapuram' is a town in Kancheepuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It has an average elevation of 12 metres (39 feet).

Ø     Mahabalipuram was a 7^th century port city of the South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas around 60 km south from the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu.

Ø    The name Mamallapuram is believed to have been given after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I who took on the epithet Maha-malla that is great wrestler, as the favourite sport of the Pallavas was wrestling.

Ø    It has various historic monuments built largely between the 7^th and the 9^th centuries, and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ø    The monuments are mostly rock-cut and monolithic, and constitute the early stages of Dravidian architecture wherein Buddhist elements of design are prominently visible.

Ø    They are constituted by cave temples, monolithic chariots, sculpted reliefs and structural temples. The pillars are of the Dravidian order.

Ø    The sculptures are excellent examples of Pallava art. It is believed by some that this area served as a school for young sculptors.

Ø    The different sculptures, some half finished, may have been examples of different styles of architecture, probably demonstrated by instructors and practiced on by young students.

Ø    This can be seen in the Pancha Rathas where each Ratha is sculpted in a different style. These five Rathas were all carved out of a single piece of granite in situ.

Ø    While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans a stone mason and sculptor recreated a stone sculpture made out of sandstone, which is softer than granite, under 4 feet that took about 60 days to carve similarly The carving at Mahabalipuram must have required hundreds of highly skilled sculptors.

Some important structures.

Ø    “Thirukadalmallai” is a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It was also built by Pallava King in order to safeguard the sculptures from the ocean.

Ø    It is told that after building this temple, the remaining architecture was preserved and was not corroded by sea.

Ø    Descent of the Ganges - a giant open-air bas relief

Ø    Arjuna's Penance - relief sculpture on a massive scale extolling an episode from the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata.

Ø    Varaha Cave Temple - a small rock-cut temple dating back to the 7^th century.

Ø    The Shore Temple - a structural temple along the Bay of Bengal with the entrance from the western side away from the sea. Recent excavations have revealed new structures here. The temple was reconstructed stone by stone from the sea after being washed away in a cyclone.

Ø    Pancha Rathas - five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the Pandavas that are Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva and Draupadi.

Ø    An interesting aspect of the rathas is that, despite their sizes they are not assembled — each of these is carved from one single large piece of stone.

Ø    Mahabalipuram is Known for its rocks carvings and monolithic sculptures it has the famous shore temple, the only one to have survived the ravages of nature.

Ø    Also known as the Seven that is Pagodas (temples), six now lie submerged in the sea.

Ø    Mahabalipuram temples whose architecture was inspired by the Pallava Art were built during the period 830 - 1100 AD.

Ø    Mahabalipuram contains nearly forty monuments of different types including an "open air bas relief" which is the largest in the world.

Ø    For centuries it has been a centre of pilgrimage, and even today it attracts devotees and foreigners in large numbers.

Ø    There are two low hills in Mahabalipuram, about 400m from the sea whose both sides have 11 excavated temples, called Mandapas.

Ø    Out of a big rock standing free nearby there is a "cut out" temple, called a "Ratha". Out of the other hill, much smaller and standing about 200m to the south, are fashioned five more rathas, and three big sculptures of a Nandi, a Loin and an Elephant.

Ø    On the top of the bigger hill there is a structural temple, and a little distance the magnificent beginnings of a Vijayanagar Gopura and also survivals of what is believed to be a palace.

The Five Rathas

Ø    The five Rathas include The Dharmaraja, The Bhima, The Arjuna, The Draupadi and The Sahadeva.

Ø    The Five Rathas, about 200 m south of the main hill, were fashioned out of a smaller hill sloping down from the south.

Ø    From the largest part was made the biggest of the five rathas, the Dharmaraja.

Ø     Then followed onwards north, in the descending order of height, the Bhima, the Arjuna and the Draupadi.  

Ø    A little to the west of Draupadi there was a comparatively large rock and out of it the Sahadeva Ratha was made.

Ø    Immediately in front of the Draupadi again two smaller rocks were sculptured into an elephant and a lion.

Ø    Behind the Draupadi and the Arjuna, which stand on a common base, there is a Nandi.

Ø    The Shore Temple occupies a most extraordinary site at the very margin of the Bay of Bengal so that at high tide the waves sweep into it and the walls.

Ø    For this reason their sculptures, have been eroded by the winds and waves of thirteen centuries.

Ø    There are 3 shrines in the Shore Temple. Two of them are of Saiva and the third is of Vaishnava, with an image of Lord Anantasayi made of live rock.

Ø    There are Vimanas over the Shaiva shrines, but none over the third; it seems to have disappeared with time.

Ø     Built by Narasimha Varman II Rajasimha, the maker of the Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram in the 8th century, this is one of the earliest structural temples in Tamil Nadu.