Mahabalipuram

The first of the much-touted India posts!

On my first Saturday in India, I visited Mahabalipuram (now known as Mamallapuram), a coastal town located in the Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. It was a 7th-century port city of the Pallava dynasty, and thus has zillions of amazing historical temples, carvings, and other marvels. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [note: I definitely stole some of the above information from Wikipedia.] I'd never been to this city before, and I love historical places, so it was a real treat seeing all of the amazing things depicted in the photos below:

The first thing we saw at Mahabalipuram was the above bas relief carving, known as The Descent of the Ganga or Arjuna's Penance [thanks Wikipedia]. Notice the incredible detail in the carving. If you look closely above the small shrine carving (to the left of the largest elephant), you'll see a carving of an emaciated man in tree pose. This is supposed to be Arjuna, doing penance in order to receive a boon from Lord Shiva to help him fight the war in the Mahabharata, or Bhagiratha, also doing penance so that the River Ganga would descend from heaven to Earth and wash over the ashes of his ancestors.

Amazingly, this sculpture is monolithic--it was carved out of ONE rock!

I really like cooing over goats and calves in India, and I thought these goats with their heads together in the shade of this boulder were kind of adorable.

More bas relief carvings in a cave temple. The one above depicts the reclining Lord Vishnu, or Seshashayanam. He reclines upon a snake bed in the ocean, and is surrounded by attendants.

In this carving, Shiva's vehicle the bull, known as Nandi, leads an army. I don't know what story this depicts, but wish I did.

I found this tree, growing out of the side of a rock face, was pretty incredible.

I took the three pictures below while standing at the top of the ancient lighthouse near the cave temples. The Tamil Nadu countryside is breathtaking.


If you squint in this photo, you can see the tower (gopuram) of the Shore Temple (which will be featured below) near the horizon, about one-fourth away from the left frame of the photo.

Below is a photo of three of the Five Rathas, monolothic, un-consecrated temples. Tickets must be purchased to visit these, and the price varies depending on whether you are Indian or a "foreigner." My cousin bought Indian-priced tickets for all of us, and told me to keep my mouth shut until we entered the compound, because had I spoken, I would have outed myself with my accent. Humorous anecdote aside, these five temples are pretty amazing.

This is a carving on the side of one of the temples, depicting Ardhanarishwara, a deity who is half-male (the left half) and half-female (the right half). Apparently it's a really great example of Pallava sculpture.

Next we visited Shore Temple, a Shiva temple located on, well, the shore. Legend has it that this is one of 3-5 shore temples in total, and all but this one are no submerged underwater. Legend also has it that before the tsunami hit this coast, when the tide was going unnaturally far out, one or two of the other shore temples were revealed. Pretty cool stuff.

Hello, gorgeous Bay of Bengal

Because this is a Shiva temple, small Nandi sculptures line the perimeter wall of the temple. In this gorgeous shot, I was able to capture the silhouettes of these Nandis.