Mahabalipuram.

Mamallapuram, the famous center of Pallava art & architecture is located 58 kms south of Chennai. The coastal town is named after Mamalla, one of the titles of Narasimhavarman I (630-668 A.D.) of the Pallava dynasty. The old name Mahabalipuram must be a corrupt form of Mallapuram, hence its connection with Mahabali, the great asura (demon) is baseless. My guide gave me another meaning, Maha is great, Bali is sacrifice and Puram is village, great village of sacrifice.

In the early Christian era the town was a flourishing sea-port. Besides being a port city, it became a center for art & architecture under the Pallavas owing to its beautiful coastal area studded with a small hill arising from sandy plain to a length of 800 m (north-south) with a width of 400 m (east-west) and an average height of 30m, thus ideal for the creation of famous group of monuments.

Amongst the great Pallava rulers was Mahendravarman I (610-630 a.d.) who introduced the cave temple architecture in Tamil Nadu. His son Narasimhavarman referred to above was also a great lover of art etc. He introduced a different mode of executing the temple by chiseling out the surface of single boulder called monolithic temples or the Ratha. He also introduced a system of depicting the puranic stories in the form of sculptures known bas-relief. The present name of Mamallapuram is derived from one of his titles Mamalla (the great wrestler). Narasimhvarman II (700-728 a.d.) introduced a new type of architecture known as structural temple meaning using blocks of stones for constructing temples.

1. The Cave Temples were excavated by scooping out the scarp of the hill. The scooping work starts from front to back. The cave temple is usually divided into inner & outer mandapas, distinguished by the difference in levels. The front mandapa will have pillars & plasters numbering 4,6,8,10. The inner mandapa contains single, triple or five cells. The cave temple with little modification is categorized as Mamalla style. The pillars under this style are slender & taller with squatting lion at their base. The pillar is divided into distinct parts known as kalasa, tadi, kumba, padma etc.  

2. The Monolithic Temples are locally known as Rathas. They were executed by chiseling out the exterior face of the boulder. Work started from top to bottom. The pyramidal vimana with sikhara at the top is an important feature of this style. It can be rightly said that these monolithic temples must have paved the way for the structural temples with elaborate architectural & sculptural details in the subsequent stage. There a total number of 8 monolithic temples found in Mamallapuram. The five rathas in one place, Ganesha Ratha, Valayankuttai Ratha & Pidari Rathas.

Five Rathas – a small hill sloping from south to north has been segmented into five divisions & converted into monolithic temples. The heights of the segments have been cleverly used for temples with single tier to three-tiered vimana. Each monolithic temples shows different kind of sikhara. The five rathas are Dharmaraja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, Arjuna Ratha, Draupadi Ratha and Nakul Sahadev Ratha.

Bas Relief – the depiction of Puranic story in the form of sculptural panel. The cliff of the natural rocks has been chosen to carve these puranic stores. The bas-reliefs found at Mamallapuram are Arjuna’s penance. All bas-reliefs ascribed to Narasimhavarman I period.

3. Shore Temple – after the cave & monolithic temple the Pallavas introduced the last & best variety of temple category involving the masonry architecture known as structural temple. It meant using blocks of stones for constructing temples. The Shore temple is an example. The structural temples on the Pallava period are based on the Manasara. A kind of sandstone was predominantly used for the structural temples. The foundation laid by the Pallavas in this town led to the development of temples with the mighty vimana at Thanjavur, Chidambaram etc. The Shore temples is a temple complex consisting of two Siva temples and a carving of Anantasayana Vishnu.

The temple facing east is entered by a small gopura. On plan, it consists of a small sanctum & a front mandapa & is a two-tired vimana. The sanctum is housing a linga. The Somaskanda panel consisting of Siva & Parvati with baby Skanda is on the back wall of the sanctum. The dhara linga & Somaskanda panel on the back wall of the sanctum are the features of the Pallava temples only.

The temple facing west is also dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple is large in plan comprising sanctum, mahamandapa, front mandapa, balipitha and dvajastamba. The temple’s vimana is four tiered with octagonal sikhara. It is important to note that stupis of both these temples are not covered by kalasa (copper finials).

The carving on Lord Vishnu on a boulder in Anantasayana form is lying in between these two temples. It belongs to the period of Narasimhavarman I and thus earlier than the Siva temples.

Above content is from A Guide to Mamallapuram by R Natesan & Temples of Tamil Nadu by V Narayanswamiand Govt of India board outside the temple. Friends I am not a temple expert but a passionate person. Have tried to be as accurate as possible but if you find any errors or suggest improvements please write to me at sanjeev@esamskriti.com. Copyright lie with the authors. My SLR camera got spoilt during the trip so had to buy a cheaper camera in Pondicherry, apologies for not so good pics.