Musafir

This is perhaps the monument which gave this town the name of ‘Seven Pagodas’ by earlier mariners. This high rising monument is located at the sea shore, hence the name Shore Temple, and is visible from quite a distance across the ocean. This monument would have acted as a landmark for the ships to get the right directions to safely dock at nearby shore. First look of the monument gives the feeling of a pagoda, which European mariners were quite familiar with hence they gave the name ‘Seven Pagodas’ to this town. It was indeed earlier thought as the work of Chinese or Egyptians, which was only later clarified with extensive study of various monuments of the town. The local villagers tells about stories of seven such monuments with gilded top crowns which they were able to see just above the water level, however all were submerged soon. ASI took up the task of underwater archaeology however nothing much was found to support the existence of those monuments. It is quite clear that the sea has encroached much of the ground of the temple, as ASI did a wonderful job to clear out the debris from 8 feet sand accumulated by continuous drift from the sea and constructed break-water wall all around the sea shore to save the temple from further damage.

This temple complex consist three different temples, raised above the same platform. Towers of the two temples have survived, but of the one is missing. Temple with smaller tower faces west while temple with large tower faces east towards the sea. Both the towers are pyramidal stepped structure which is topped with an octagonal sikhara above. The octagonal sikhara puts this into Dravidian style of temple architecture.

The large temple tower has three recessed storeys. The cornice of each storey has regular arrangement of kudus(horseshoe dormer windows) as seen in the cave temples. Octagonal sikhara is mounted over a circular griva. This sikhara is topped  with a kalasa and finial. The inner cell, garbhagriha, is a square of 12 feet sides and 11 feet high. There is a somaskanda panel at the back wall of this cell, while two similar panels are there in the porch of the temple. The enshrined Shivalinga is of typical Rajasimha style, made of black basalt stone with multi-faceted sides, sixteen in this case, and slightly fluted at the top such as to form the crown above the top. The upper part of the linga is broken. The total height of the linga would have been six feet out of this one feet is buried in the ground to fit in the hole to support the vertical shaft. The garbhagriha is preceded by a ardha-mandapa, in which south wall is sculpted Brahma and north wall is depicting Vishnu. On outer northern wall of the sanctum, we find two sculptures of interest, Shiva as Tripurantaka and Durga. There is an open circumambulatory path around this shrine. Many of the sculptures on the external walls are in much ruined condition.

The middle shrine, without any tower, is sandwiched in between small and large Shiva temples. This is a rectangular shrine to enshrine Anantasayana (Sleeping posture of Vishnu over Sesha) image of Vishnu. This image is very mush ruined and the attributes in his hands are beyond recognition. There is an inscription in Pallava Grantha script on the  lintel of this shrine which suggests that this is perhaps the earliest shrine of the complex. The smaller Shiva temple is sculpted in similar design as that of large temple or Dharmaraja Ratha. The tower is stepped pyramidal in design, topped with an octagonal sikhara mounted on a circular griha. The sikhara is topped with a kalasa and finial above that. The cell has a somaskanda panel at the back wall. There would have been a mandapa in front of this temple, however this is missing now.

In recent excavations, a compound is found near the main shrine, within the complex. This compound has a circular shrine in the middle which has rampant lions on its pilasters. It has a circular sikhara. Inside is shown a figure of Ganesha. There would have been a kalasa above this sikhara however it is missing now. Another interesting discovery is an image of Varaha (boar) placed within this compound. We have seen similar Varaha images at Khajuraho and Eran, however those images are shown representing varaha coming out of the ocean carrying Bhu-devi. This Varaha at Mahabalipuram is in different posture, it is shown with its head down and pressing its hind legs with force such as to plunge into the ocean. There is no figure of Bhu-devi hence it is assumed that the scene represented here is of the start of spectacle of getting Bhu-devi from the depths of the ocean. As the shrine and the Varaha are constructed at the base of the compound, hence when it would have been filled with water, this would have presented a marvellous fascinating scene of Varaha submerged in waters to get Bhu-devi from its depths.

Within the compound of this temple, is a monolith sculpture of a lion. This is partly  carved out of rock and partly sculpted. This majestic lion is seated majestically with a hole in its torso. This hole in its torso is perhaps a representation of a cave shrine. Inside the back of the hole, is carved a miniature image of Durga in Mahishasurmardini posture. Creation of this space near the heart of the lion also represents that concept of most loved person residing with your heart, viewers can recall a famous story from Ramayana where Hanuman opened up his heart to shown that Rama with Sita live within his heart. In similar fashion, for lion, being the mount of goddess Durga, it is quite appropriate to carve her image near its heart. A female guardian is shown sitting on lions leg, carrying a bow.

Hundreds of sculptures are found in this vicinity and are displayed as an open air  museum. There are few inscriptions found in this temple. Some of those are listed below.
1. On the lintel of Vishnu shrine is an inscription which refers this temple as Narapatisimha Pallava Vishnu Griha. Narapatisimha is a title of Rajasimha, as seen among his list of titles from Kailasanatha Temple at Kanchi.
2. On the plinth of two balipithas excavated in the courtyard of this temple, there is found a damaged Sanskrit record of six verses written in Pallava Grantha script. This inscription praises Pallava King Atyantakama, a title of Rajasimha.
3. In the slab of smaller Shiva temple, which is now inserted in the base, are found two inscriptions of Rajaraja Chola I dated in his twenty-fifth year of reign, 1010 CE. The names of the three temples mentioned in these inscriptions are,Kshatriyasimha Pallaveshvara-griham, Rajasimha Pallaveshvara-griham and Pllikondaruliya-devar. The whole complex is referred as Jalashayana. These inscriptions also indicates that the Vishnu shrine was executed first among all the shrines.

We now move on to the last leg of the trip to Mahabalipuram, the Tiger Cave.

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.