From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The monuments are mostly rock cut and monolithic and constitute the early stages of Dravidian architecture wherein Buddhist elements of design are prominently visible. They are constituted by cave temples, monolithic rathas (chariots), sculpted reliefs and structural temples. The pillars are of the Dravidian order. The sculptures are excellent examples of Pallava art.
Some important structures
- Arjuna's Penance- relief sculpture on a massive scale extolling stories from Hindu mythology.
- The Shore Temple- a structural temple along the Bay of Bengal with the entrance from the Western side away from the sea. Recent excavations have revealed new structures here. The temple was reconstructed stone by stone from the sea after being washed away in a cyclone.
- Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots) - five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the Pandavas (Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula & Sahadeva) and Draupadi.
Recently a major find was made of a large number of underwater ruins, thought to date back to 6000 BC, older than Harappa.
External links
- City Under the Sea: Wrath of Jealous Gods? (http://www.geocities.com/avarangal/References/CityUnderTheSee2.html) – By B.K. Parthasarathy
- THE INDIA ATLANTIS EXPEDITION - March 2002 (http://www.india-atlantis.org/)
Tsunami Victims No Stranger to Disaster At Mahabalipuram:
From
GUARDIAN UNLIMITED:
Tuesday December 28, 2004 7:16 PM: By CHRIS TOMLINSON,
Associated Press Writer
MAHABALIPURAM, India (AP) - When the tsunami wave struck
this ancient pilgrimage town, the
sea water broke around a 1,200-year-old temple on
the shore and destroyed the 80 tourist shops lined up next
to it.
Sundary Munnaswamy lost her two shops Sunday morning, but
her family survived the deluge that killed 15 townspeople.
Now, she says, they'll do the same thing they and their
ancestors have done every time disaster strikes: Get a loan,
buy new inventory and get back to work.
``Willpower is what keeps you going,'' she said Tuesday,
standing in the broken cement frame where she sold
seashells, stone carvings and textiles.
Ninety-nine deaths had been counted in Mahabalipuram and
surrounding villages, but S.R. Kumar, the 70-year-old senior
priest at the town's main temple, said the area's people
will persevere the same as Munnaswamy because most are
devout in their Hinduism.
``God is all the survivors need,'' he said, standing in
front of the blue and white Sthalasayanapermal Temple, which
was built 700 years ago to replace another shoreside temple.
``They just need to pray every day.''
The crash of surf echoed as Munnaswamy scraped sand from one
of her wrecked shops, just yards from the 8th century Shore
Temple, the earliest existing example of a stone-built
temple in southern India.
This was not her first brush with disaster.
Perhaps the worst before Sunday was when a cyclone, as
typhoons are known in India, swept through in 1968. The
shops then weren't so close to the temple, which sits just
30 feet from the ocean, but the storm surge seriously
damaged the town nonetheless.
``We have cyclones every year, but some years are worse than
others,'' said Munnaswamy, who also has twice lost shops to
fire.
India can be a hard place, no matter the location.
Earthquakes strike northwestern and western parts of the
country, drought and flash floods are common in the central
regions, and cyclones rake the coasts. But tsunami waves are
rare and none have been recorded that equaled the one that
struck Sunday.
Munnaswamy, 52, said she was away from her shops hawking
wares in town at a dance festival when three huge waves hit
Mahabalipuram, a town of 13,000 people that dates back to
the 2nd century and is visited each year by thousands of
Hindu pilgrims and tourists.
The Shore Temple, listed by the United Nations as a World
Heritage Site, is adorned with elaborate carvings
representing characters from Hindu scriptures in scenes of
everyday life, a contrast to other temples in the region
that depict only gods and goddesses.
It survived Sunday's onslaught because during a visit in
1978, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi saw erosion was
threatening the temple and ordered that huge boulders be
piled around the structure to protect it from the sea.
The barrier worked when the tsunami waves hit Sunday, though
most of the sand between the huge boulders was washed away,
creating perilous gaps in the protective wall.
Munnaswamy said she wished the rocks had been placed all the
way around the town, because that might have saved two of
her friends who were washed out to sea.
But she counts her blessings that no one in her family was
killed in this, or any other of the town's disasters. She
said she will rebuild her shops, and arrange loans from
friends to get them running again.
``I am from this town. I don't ever want to go anywhere
else,'' she said. ``My children are in this business and I
don't know any other profession.''