Hello LGs,
Let me introduce the city of Mahabalipuram or Mamallapuram (Tamil: மாமல்லபுரம்) an ancient port city in the Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. Once a bustling seaport and a busy trading center, the place is now one of the major tourist attractions near Chennai.
Mahabalipuram is one of the oldest cities in India. Present day, it is known for its great monuments, cave sanctuaries, and sculptures, with all its rock art and relief sculptures, is a UNESCO world site.
Once ruled by the Pallavas, famed for their excellent architecture and sculptures, Mahabalipuram has beautiful rock-cut monuments that draw architects, history enthusiasts and travelers from around the world.
Getting There:
Mahabalipuram has located around 56 km from Chennai. The nearest airport to Mahabalipuram is at Chennai (IATA airport code MAA). You can drive from Chennai, or hire a cab, or take one of the several buses that shuttle between Chennai and Mahabalipuram. It can be reached in under two hours by road. The nearest railway station is Chengalapattu, which is around 30 km from Mahabalipuram.
History
The group contains several categories of monuments: Ratha temples with monolithic processional chariots, built between 630 and 668, mandapa viharas (cave temples). With narratives from the Mahabharata and Shaivic, Shakti and Vaishna inscriptions in a number of Indian languages and scripts, rock reliefs, stone-cut temples built between 695 and 722, and archaeological excavations dated to the 6th century and earlier.
Description
The monuments are a fusion of religion, culture and legend relating to the Hindu religious pantheon. They are expressions through rock or inside boulders, on a grand scale, integrating nature and sculpture. The site has about forty monuments, in varying degrees of completion, categorized into five groups,
Rathas: chariot-shaped temples
The ‘Ratha’ temples are the cave temple made of rocks. The Rathas are regarded as the five Rathas of Pandavas, the eminent characters of the Mahabharata. The stone chariots tell us stories of the by gone days of Mahabalipuram. The rock-cut temples with exclusive sculptures make the temples more attractive for the tourists and archeologists alike. Here is the Pancha Ratha with Picture description.
The rock chariots differ from one another in respect to structural design and contour. These Rathas are regarded as important shrines for the Hindus as the mythological characters play an important role in Indian life.
Cave temples:
The Mamallapuram cave temples are incomplete, which has made them a significant source of information about how cave monuments were excavated and built in 7th-century India. After the excavation, other artisans moved in to polish the rocks and begin the creation of designs, motifs, friezes, and Hindu iconography. The process of producing rock-cut cave temples influenced later structural Hindu temples. There are several Cave Temples as like the Ratha here are the some Cave temples.
Structural temples:
The structural (free-standing) temples at Mamallapuram have been built with cut stones as building blocks, rather than carved into a rock (cave temples) or out of a rock (Ratha temples). Surviving examples, fewer in number and representing a different stage, style, and sophistication than the other monuments, are some of the best examples of early medieval Tamil Hindu-temple architecture. These temples (like other monuments in Mamallapuram) were dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Durga, although more Shiva iconography has survived. There are several structural temples among them the Shore Temple is the biggest and famous temple
The evidence place to prove the art of the sculpturing and ancient stonework of Indians. This one will prove the skill of Sculpturing and Stonework of Tamilians. There are several World Heritage Site in Tamilnadu this time I covered the Mahabalipuram. In next post, I will cover up with the heritage site of Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple and Thanjai Periya koyil. I hope you will enjoy this post, and Thanks in advance for your support.
