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Mahabalipuram

Country: India

Region: Asia-Pacific

State: Tamil Nadu

District: Kancheepuram

Type: Caltural

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).

Mahabalipuram was a 7th century port city of
the South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas around 60 km south from the city of
Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The name Mamallapuram is believed to have been given
after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, who took on the epithet Maha-malla
(great wrestler), as the favourite sport of the Pallavas was wrestling. It has
various historic monuments built largely between the 7th and the 9th centuries,
and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The
temples of Mamallapuram, portraying events described in the Mahabharata, built
largely during the reigns of Narasimhavarman and his successor Rajasimhavarman,
showcase the movement from rock-cut architecture to structural building. The
mandapa or pavilions and the rathas or shrines shaped as temple chariots are
hewn from the granite rock face, while the famed Shore Temple, erected half a
century later, is built from dressed stone. What makes Mamallapuram so
culturally resonant are the influences it absorbs and disseminates. The Shore
Temple includes many bas reliefs, including one 100 ft. long and 45 ft. high,
carved out of granite.

All
but one of the rathas from the first phase of Pallava architecture are modelled
on the Buddhist viharas or monasteries and chaitya halls with several cells
arranged around a courtyard. Art historian Percy Brown, in fact, traces the
possible roots of the Pallava Mandapa to the similar rock-cut caves of Ajanta
Caves and Ellora Caves. Referring to Narasimhavarman's victory in AD 642 over
the Chalukyan king Pulakesin II, Brown says the Pallava king may have brought
the sculptors and artisans back to Kanchi and Mamallapuram as 'spoils of war'.