Travelogue ATripToMahabalipuramPondicherry

8/17/2019 Travelogue ATripToMahabalipuramPondicherry

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Travelogue - A Trip to Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry, Narrated By: Arindam Basu

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Travelogue - A Trip to Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry (25-Aug-2010 to 26-Aug-2010)

Narrated By: Arindam Basu ([email protected])

Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram

Mahabalipuram – also known as

Mamallapuram is a town in the state of

Tamil Nadu, India and located at around

60km south of Chennai. The town is

famous for its stone carvings and legends

of its seven pagodas, six of which were

lost to sea and parts of which were re-

discovered during the Tsunami of 2004.The groups of Monuments at

Mahabalipuram have been classified as a

UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Shore Temple (built at around 700AD)

is a prominent standing structure here.

I got a chance to visit the place when I was lodged at a

guest house on the East Coast Road, Chennai.

The guest house I was stationed at is located atVettuvankeni Bus stop, about 7kms from the

Thiruvanmuyur Bus stand.

The East Coast road is a well connected highway

connecting Chennai with Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry

(or Puducherry).

The Mahabalipuram town is located on the shores of Bay

of Bengal and has faced the wrath of sea at various

periods of time.

The heritage site of Mahabalipuram is known to me for

long, but being lodged at the ECR guest house I never

realized that I was so close to the place.

I decided to visit the places of Mahabalipuram and

Pondicherry on consecutive days at very early morning.




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On 25-Aug-2010 (Wednesday), I woke up early and got ready and walked to the Vettuvankeni

Bus stop at 6:45am. It was drizzling and was very cloudy. I have to wait for long to get a Bus for

Mahabalipuram, since most buses on the route were destined for Puducherry. Got the Bus at

7:15am and the Bus fare was Rs16/-. It took some half and hour and I reached the outskirts of

the town by 7:50am. I already had the complete chart preparad for what to see like – Krishna’s

Butter Ball, Shore Temple, Arjuna’s Penance, Varaha Cave, Panch Rathas and the Beach

Krishna’s Butter Ball: It is a giant

monolithic natural granite rock of height

above 20 feet with weight over 250

tonnes, and miraculously stands on an

extremely small base of around 4 feet and

stands on a slippery area of a hill and has

been standing there for 1000 years!

An attempt to move the Rock in to a safer

place in 1908 using 7 elephants to push

the rock did not make it to move a single

inch.

The Rock was originally known as “VaanIrai Kal” or Stone of the Sky God in Tamil.

I asked a localite to take my snap with the rock and I stayed a bit away from the rock, because

even though it may not have moved for 1000 years, it may start to move anytime and taking a

bet on that was not my plan!

You will notice the small boulder near the grass with holes on it created by masons, who placed

wooden planks in the holes and dripped water on them so that the wood planks expand and

create tremendous pressure and break such boulders into smaller pieces across the dotted

lines. This ingenious technique was used to cut all big rock structures in ancient days.

Varaha Cave: The Cave has been carved out of a single big rock and has detailed intricate

carvings depicting Vishnu, Durga and other gods. The ceiling has nice paintings in red.

Rayar Gopuram: Walking towards the hills, I noticed various structures, many of them half

finished, and all cut out of monolithic huge rocks. Notice the bird carving (circled in blue) as

signature of the sculpture who created the carving.




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Walking further towards the lighthouse I noticed a giant rock slab with a sitting lion structure, a

rock cut bath tub shaped structure filled with water, another cave with rock cut structure with

intricate carvings of gods like Brahma and others, a rock slab in the shape of a bed and other

larger structures

Arjuna’s Penance: I traced back to the Butter Ball area and went to see the Arjuna’s Penance or

the Descent of the Ganges, which is a giant bas-relief single rock cut structure with intricate

carvings of Elephants, Gods and various characters unknown to the Archaeologists.

Besides the Arjuna’s Penance there was another rock cut Cave with intricate carvings.

Thirukadalmallai: It is a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and

built by Pallava King who reined the region from 7th

to 9th

century

AD. This temple location is in between the Arjuna’s Penance and

Shore Temple.

It is believed that this structure was build to safeguard the

sculptures from the sea and after building this, the sculptures

were saved from corrosion by the sea.




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Shore Temple: The Shore Temple is build using rock structures and was built by Pallava King

Narasimha Varman II (RajaSimha) during AD 700-728

The Temple has a Shiva Lingam in the central building and various rock carved structures ofanimals and gods. There is a lion structure with Durga idol carved within its hollow space in the

front. The garden is nice and well maintained.

Mahabalipuram Beach: The Beach is just besides the Shore Temple. The sea is very rough here

and there is a steep slope at the edge towards the sea.

Panch Ratha: The site contains five ratha or chariots built during the period AD 630-668 by the

Pallava King NarasimhaVarman I, using large huge rocks for each of the structures.




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The Panch Rathas – are named since they resemble wooden chariots. Various animal forms like

an Elephant, Cow and Lion are represented on the monolithic stones.

Walking away from the Panch Rathas I noticed various granite stone cut sculptors created by

local artists for sale besides the road.

Mahisamardini Cave: I walked ahead to visit the Cave which was on a steep rock pathway and I

seemed exhausted to climb the huge rock stairs to the hill top of the Cave. From the hill top I

could see the entire view of the town.

The inside of the Mahisamardini Cave had exquisite display of stone carvings of Hindu deities.

This was my last destination at Mahabalipuram and then I slowly walked ahead to the Bus Stop

to catch the return Bus.




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Pondicherry (or Puducherry)

On 26-Aug-2010, I visited the well known Pondicherry city. It is situated at a distance of 160Kms

from Chennai. I took an early morning Express Bus at 6:30am from Vettuvankeni (on East Coast

Road) and reached Mangalpet, 3kms from Aurobindo Ashram at around 8:50am. Taking an auto

I reached the Ashram and visited the Samadhi of Rishi Aurobindo.

Roaming around I noticed that the buildings at Pondicherry have distinct evidence of Portugese

architecture.

The shore line near the Aurobindo Ashram is rocky and the sea is very rough here.

I had limited time and hence could not enjoy much of Pondicherry and its beaches and have to

leave soon to complete my visit.

© All Photos are taken with my Digital Camera, Samsung L201

Travelogue ATripToMahabalipuramPondicherry

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