Musafir

The Bhima Ratha is the third ratha in line after Draupadi and Arjuna Rathas. As this seems to be the bulkiest one among the group hence name Bihma seems quite appropriate however keep in mind that these buildings had nothing to do with Pandavas. From the architecture style, this building resembles the early Buddhist building. This is oblong in plan and topped with a wagon vaulted roof with gabled ends. It is 42 feet long, 25 feet wide and 25 feet high. This is two storey building, where the ground floor is left unfinished. A circumambulatory path was planned around the oblong shrine, all around supported by the pillars. The corners were to be transformed into lion-base pillars but the work on those is left unfinished. From the oblong shrine in middle, we may deduce that this ratha was constructed to house Anantasayana (sleeping Vishnu) icon of Vishnu, however there is no proof to support this deduction. The pillars supporting the wagon roof of these shrines are supported on rampant lion pillars.

The first storey has wagon vaulted roof supported a rectangular structure with niches carved at regular intervals. In some of the niches are seen unfinished human figures. The gable ends of this roof are very interesting, northern one is more finished than the southern one. In these is shown a shrine with octagonal vimana topped with a spherical roof. If you compare the style of this shrine, inside the gabled end, then for sure it resembles with the Buddhist stupas however, there are many differentiating factors which suggests that this is one of the temple tower style tried out by the Mahabalipuram artists. If we count all the rathas, then we have total of twelve tower styles seen altogether, ten of the rathas and one shrine each in the gabled ends of Bhima and Sahadeva Ratha. It can be assumed that the artists there tried to show various kinds of tower styles so that the appropriate styles can be taken up for further refinement. The vaulted roof of this ratha would have many finials along its ridge however none can be seen now except their bases.

The Dharmaraja Ratha is the south-most shrine in the series and the highest one as well. Being the biggest one among the group, the name Dharmaraja, the eldest among the Pandavas, justifies it pretty well. On plan and architecture it looks very similar to Arjuna Ratha, however here we see a three storey building instead of two. The ground floor is a square of 28 feet side and the tallest among the all floors. This is more than 35 feet high from the ground to its domed roof. As in most of the other rathas, this ratha is also incomplete as can be seen from the left work on the ground floor. This west facing ratha is open on all the sides, each side supported on two pillars and two pilasters. The corners on each side are left such as forming piers supporting the roof. Initially the plan was to excavate the cell in the middle however the rock gave in due to the weight of above structure as the fissure seen in the middle. Initial travellers and scholars took this fissure as the result of an earthquake however, there seems to be no such incident of this nature happening in the past.

This ratha is very important from iconography perspective as here we see many icons for the first time in Pallava history and of south India as well. All of the three floors are carved extensively all around hence we see various icons. There are total of eight niches on the external sides of the ground floor. Some of the niches bear the inscriptions, which were first thought as the names of the artists but later on clarified as the titles of some Pallava king.

One of the niches has a very important image, Pallava king Narasimhavarman I Mamalla. This theory is dependent upon the inscription above the niche. The figure as such depicts all the features of a royal personage. Long ear rings are in his both ears. He is shown wearing a short lower garment which is tied in front of his waist. He is also shown wearing a yajnopavita. Another feature to distinguish him from other celestial deities is that he is depicted with two hands only. The inscription above the niche gives two titles, ‘Atyantakama (boundless desires)’ and ‘Anekopaya (many expedients)’.

The first floor of this ratha has many images however it’s not easy to reach there as there is no provision in this monument to go to this storey. You need a stair to reach up however it’s not easy as I think you will need permission from ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) and also to arrange for such a stair. The second storey is the most finished floor of the ratha. There is a cell excavated with niches on either side having dvarpalas installed. In the cell of this floor we find the earliest representation of Somaskanda panel. In this panel Parvati is shown seated facing Shiva. In later stages we see the face of Parvati turns towards us. In this floor we found two inscriptions, which gave us information about the creator of the monument. The inscription ‘Atyantakama-Pallaveshvara-Griham’ suggests that this temple was constructed by Atyantakama, which according to E Hultzsch it is the title of Narasimhavarman I Mamalla, while K R Srinivasan suggests that this is the title of Parameshvaravarman I and R Nagaswamy says that this title is of Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha.

The Sahadeva Ratha is standing away from the group, carved out on a separated boulder, just opposite to Arjuna Ratha. Not only this is separated from the group but its architecture style also puts it standing out among the others. Some historians suggest that this ratha was probably dedicated to Indra on account of elephants on the doors as the guardians and a life size elephant figure standing  near this monument. This west facing shrine has it façade supported on two pillars which are with regular lion-base theme. This façade forms a kind of mukha-mandapa which leads to the main cell. This cell has two pilasters on outside with elephants carved on the base such as forming the guardians of the shrines. There are two storeys above the ground floor. Above the cornice of the ground floor, we witness the regular arrangement of oblong gabled shrines and square corner shrines interconnected by a cloister all around the edge. The gabled end at the west is very interesting in style. We see three gates carved out, the central gate is bigger than the other two. Inside the central door is carved a shrine with square tower topped with a finial.

The side life-size elephant is carved with not very sharp features but rather little crude in craftsmanship. Also this figure in not  complete as the space between front and rear legs is not removed and feet are not carved in complete. The trunk is rather very straight and very raw in features. There are holed space for the tusks however these are empty now. Probably these holes were adorned with real tusks but it’s just a theory nothing to substantiate this.

So these are the various monuments under the group 'Pancha Pandava Rathas'. Understanding the story and the architecture behind these monuments has been a really great experience with the amount of reading that i had done before writing this article.

There are quite a good number of references which includes other blogs. Some of the ideas expressed are taken directly from the other blogs. However, i tried to make this original as much as i could.

We are already on the last leg of the trip to Mahabalipuram. We just have to visit a couple of places more. I next moved to one of the masterpieces in Mahabalipuram, the Shore Temple.

Till now we have seen the rock-cut temple where a rock face is excavated deep to form a verandah and to accommodate one or more cells on the back wall. Also well known is the fact that Mahendravarman I started this rock-cut shrine fashion in South India. As all the cave temple only show the two dimensional representation of your thoughts what if someone wants to represent his ideas in three dimensions and keeping the long lasting characteristic of rocks. This is where we see the brilliance of Mahendra's successor Narasimhavarman I Mamalla when he started a new style, carving the temple out of a monolith, locally called as Rathas. The freshness of these rathas are still the same as it looks that these were finished very recently. A Ratha literally meant a car or chariot. In old times, as well as in present, the temples used to have their cars in which the main deities were put during the processions. However these carved monoliths do not look like a chariot but a full blown temple itself. The sculptors started from the top as noticed from their incomplete state at the bottom. There are total of ten such rathas at Mahabalipuram. We have already see the Ganesha Ratha earlier. We will visit the others now.

The Pancha Pandava Rathas actually have nothing to do with the Pandavas. It was a custom in the earlier period to associate a construction to a mystical figure and moreover the number of constructions are five. Four out of five rathas are carved out of a single whale-back rock which has a gradual increase in height from north to south. This rock is utilized in its fullest and from it came out four magnificent specimen of Pallava architecture. Most of the scholars assign these constructions to Narasimhavarman I Mamalla, however some of these might have been completed by his successor Parameshvaravarman I.

The Draupadi Ratha is the smallest of the group and located on the northern most end of the rock. Being the smallest and dedicated to female goddess, this is named so. In architectural style, this looks like a thatched roof of Bengal where curvilinear roof is usually topped upon the structure. This kind of huts would have been quite in use not only in Bengal but other parts of India, such as in present time also we see such huts in our villages. The finial would have been placed in old time, however now it is missing. This west facing ratha is constructed on a high rise platform, which is supported on a large alternating elephant and lion heads frieze. The front facade has two female dvarapalas, proper right one holding a sword and proper left one holding a bow. At the corners of the roof is seen beautiful creeper designs.

On the back wall of the cell inside, is a magnificent image of Durga. She is shown standing on a lotus. Depicted with four hands, she is carrying a sankha and chakra in her upper hands while her one lower hand is in abhaya mudra and another lower hand is resting on her waist. There are two devotees, left one trying to cut his head in offerings to the goddess while the right one is offering flowers. The devotee on the left is shown with long tresses and he is holding those in order to keep his neck tight to accommodate smooth cutting. We also see four ganas (goblins) on the upper side of the panel, two on either side of the goddess. Two, at extreme ends, are shown holding a small sword while the two inner ones are shown with one hand raised in adoration.

There are three niches carved at the three walls of this ratha. The niches are carved within two pilasters and are shown an icon of Durga who is standing on a buffalo head, which represents Mahishasura, the buffalo demon. In her upper hands she carries sankha and chakra while her one lower hand is in abhaya mudra and another resting on her waist. In front of this ratha is carved a 6 feet high lion out of a boulder. As the ratha is dedicated to Durga hence her lion in front and this shows the utilization at the maximum, simply outstanding.

The Arjuna Ratha is west facing and measures 11.5 feet by 16 feet and 20 feet high. It shares the platform with the Draupadi Ratha. This is a two storey complex with a octagonal dome like structure on the top. This top would have been adorned with a finial, as this finial can be seen on the platform near this shrine. The front facade is supported on two pillars and two pilasters on the front. The pilasters are supported by lions, which are shown facing each other. The second storey (first floor) has eight niches adorned with couples, two on each side. There is a small mandapa in front which leads into the garbha-griha which is a almost square cell of 4.5 feet by 5 feet in size. The Garbha-griha is empty now, but it was  reported by earlier historians that they found a head with trisula prongs. Hence this structure seems to be dedicated to Shiva. The niche images on external  walls also supports this deduction.There was not much space for dvarpalas inside the cell or in mandapa hence those are carved on external walls.

On north niche is shown Vishnu on Garuda. Vishnu is shown carrying sankha and chakra and shown in the act of mounting on to Garuda. On proper right to this niche is shown a couple and proper left niche is empty. On the corner niches are shown two dvarpalas, with one hand raised in adoration. On east wall is shown Subramanya on his mount, elephant in the central niche. As Indra is also depicted with his elephant so this could be Indra as well, however as the monument is dedicated to Shiva hence Subramanya seems to be better fit. Also his headdress is similar to the Subramanya image of Trimurti Cave, hence this image on this ratha can be treated as of Subramanya. On its proper right niche are shown two female figures, in which one figure is of great beauty and grace. On proper left niche is shown a sage with his disciple. On corner niches are shown dvarpalas, in which the proper right one is shown holding a bow and other one with one hand raised in adoration. On southern wall, in middle niche, is shown Shiva where he is shown leaning against his mount, Nandi, the bull. On the either side of this niche are shown two couples, one in each niche. On corner niches are shown dvarpalas, with one hand raised in adoration. On the east of the ratha is a figure of Nandi, the mount of Shiva. As there was no rock found in front of the ratha hence the artists carved this out in the rock at the backside of the monument. In such a case, the artists were able to carve the face of Nandi facing the shrine, as seen in orthodox style.

We will see the other three Rathas in the following article…