Staying with a chronological description of my travels, complemented by impressions and information appropriate for particular sites, in this post I will describe my discovery of early temple architecture in and around Chennai, where I returned after my excursion to Madurai.
Chennai (in the beautiful Tamil script சென்னை) formerly known as Madras, is the capital city of Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal, and it is the fourth largest metropolis of India after New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta. The area has many monuments and temples exemplifying Dravidian architecture and the contributions of the Pallava dynasty during their greatest epoch corresponding to the 7th and 8th century, followed by the medieval Chola dynasty through their golden era.
After my visit of the Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore and then the masterpiece of Dravidian temple architecture, the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, I wanted to learn more about the Dravidian civilization, its past and its legacy. As I tried to untangle the stories of the early history of India I came upon an academic controversy centering around the theory that India was invaded and conquered by nomadic light-skinned Indo-European tribes, the Aryans from Central Asia, around 1500-1000 BC. They overran the earlier, more advanced, dark-skinned Dravidian civilization from which they took most of what later became Indian civilization. I found this in several books and then found passionate and convincing refutation.
Oh dear! Let’s stay with the temple architecture termed Dravidian which evolved in South India around the 6th century and developed for about 10 centuries, subdivided into five periods:
- Pallava Period
- Chola Period
- Pandava Period
- Vijayanagara Period
- Nayakkar Period.
The earliest examples of temples in the Dravidian style belong to the Pallava period and are best represented by the rock-cut temples of Mahabalipuram dating from 610 – 690 AD. And this was my next destination.
Mahabalipuram – or Mamallapuram – once the port city of the Pallava rulers, is located about 30 miles south of Chennai on the Coromandel Coast. It has various historic monuments and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. India has 28 World Heritage Sites of which 23 are cultural monuments and the other five are natural sites. Tamil Nadu has the highest number of sites in India.
We drove down from Chennai on a Sunday morning. The sight of the monochromatic granite carvings of Mahabalipuram was enhanced by families on Sunday outings, all dressed up and intricately adorned, in saris of jewel colors, and young girls with jasmine garlands in their hair.
The Mahabalipuram sanctuary monuments may be subdivided into five categories:
- ratha temples in the form of processional chariots, monolithic constructions cut into the residual blocks of diorite which emerge from the sand;
- mandapa, or rock sanctuaries modeled as rooms covered with bas-reliefs;
- rock reliefs in the open air called ”Arjuna’s Penance” illustrating a popular episode in the iconography of Shiva: the Descent of the Ganges. The sculptors used the natural fissure dividing the cliff to suggest this cosmic event to which a swarming crowd of gods, goddesses, mythical beings, wild and domestic animals bear witness;
- temples built from cut stone;
- structural architecture that was introduced on a grand scale by Pallava Rajasimha (700-728), culminating in the erection of the Shore Temple.
The Five Rathas carved from single granite boulders
A mandapa – cave sanctuary carved into the granite rock
Arjuna’s Penance, 96 feet long by 43 feet high, the world’s largest rock-cut bas-relief
The rock-carved sculptures, excellent examples of Pallava art, are characterized by the softness and supple mass of their modeling. They tell many stories from the life of deities Krishna, Shiva, Durgha and from the Sanskrit epic of the Mahabarata.
Shore Temple
Unlike the rock-cut monuments at the site, the famed Shore Temple is a structural temple. It is the earliest important structural temple in Southern India, a monument of architectural importance standing against the backdrop of the deep blue waters of the Bay. It belongs to a period when the construction style of the Pallavas was at its peak in its decorative beauty and intrinsic quality.
The ancient city of Mahabalipuram has been called the “Town of the Seven Pagodas” ever since the first European explorers reached the city many centuries ago. According to popular belief, once upon a time there were seven magnificent pagodas at the site. When God Indra became jealous of this earthly city, he sank it during a great storm, leaving only the Shore Temple above water.
Following the 2004 tsunami that ravaged the area, as the water receded the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered some substantial structures in the vicinity of the Temple. Since then the Archaeological Survey of India has been leading an effort yielding exciting findings. The current opinion among archaeologists is that yet another tsunami destroyed the Pallava temples in the 13th century and these may be remnants of the Seven Pagodas. As exploration continues we will come closer to knowing the reality behind the myth, and add to the story of Mahabalipuram.
To be continued:
Art and culture tour of India- Part 5:
Tracking contemporary art from Bangalore to Mumbai
