Less than two hours drive south from Chennai is historic Mamallapuram, now designated as a World Heritage site. It was the second capital and seaport of the Pallava kings of Kanchipuram who ruled much of Tamil Nadu from the 4th to the 9th century. Today, they are remembered primarily for their patronage and promotion of Dravidian architecture. The landscape in and around Mamallapuram features huge rock outcroppings which have traditionally attracted armies of stone cutters whose progeny to this day still ply their trade producing intricate sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses.
The principal attraction here is the Shore Temple. It has been a matter of intense speculation, some claiming that seven of these were originally built (six, they say, having since been claimed by the sea). Though now largely relegated to myth, the tsunami - which hit the coast in December of 2004 - nevertheless re-ignited the controversy after some eye-witnesses recalled seeing patterned arrangements of stone emerge briefly from the water.
Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram, as it was called up until only a few years ago) also boasts of having the largest open air bas-relief monolith in the world, known as “Arjuna’s Penance” or “The Descent of Ganga”. In addition there are the “Five Rathas”, or vehicles, which, scholars suspect, was the result of attempting to determine a suitable architectural style for yet to be commissioned Pallava-sponsored temples built to honor the gods they revered.
Virtual tomes have been published about all the antiquities that can be found in Mamallapuram. Of more immediate interest to the casual traveler might be the fact that Mamallapuram is the only spot on India’s arid east coast that can claim to have world class resorts. The area is an amalgam of the very old and the very new and, as such, a fair representation of present-day India.
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