What's a pallava? - temples chapter 2

Chapter 2 in our easy guide to temples starts in Mahabalipuram - just up the coast from Pondicherry. Again, pictures for those who don't want the details - if you fancy a little info, that's all I've included!

The temples and carvings at Mahabalipuram date from the time when this was a major port for the Pallavas - it's now a small fishing village with a large tourist trade and many identikit kashmiri shops. The carvings were stunning though and the sea breeze welcome!

The Shore Temple here pre-dates the Chola temples we saw in Tanjavur, Chidambaram etc. You'll see that the shape is similar, but these were made between 500-900AD. The site away from the sea is home to carvings on the rock face, others (the last picture here) are inside hollowed out rocks made into temples and decorated with wall scenes. They're not sure what the stone carvings were for but they might have been for worship (and some are curiously in line with the current temple of the town).

- another theory is that the craftsmen in the town were just showing off what they could do... there's still plenty of evidence of their skills, with workshops all over town and statues in different stages of completion everywhere!


From the coast we took the bus to Kanchipuram - city of so many temples! We went to the oldest first, an empty, peaceful, grassy park place on the edge of town and a great contrast to the one we visited later in the evening, where day 7 of a 9 day festival was well underway (think big wheel in the courtyard, candy floss and flashing lights!).

The old temple dates from the 8th Century and it was easy to see from the work and the shape what would be taken into the Chola temples. What was different was that the outer walls were not collumned walkways, but rows of little (very little!) cells for meditation, some facing each other and others facing outwards... it was a nice calm place, and the carving so detailled..

The oldest templet was very quiet and not used very much anymore. The next day we took a cycle rickshaw (comical journey communicating with the driver with no english and fighting the urge to get out and push uphill at least..!) to the largest temple outside town, where the Pallavas work has been added to and the temple is still very much used. We didn't get to see muich here as the temple brahmins were not so open about letting non-hindus (read: tourists) into the inner courtyards. The thousand pillar hall (a special building for weddings and other ceremonies) was open though and a great example of the detail and fanciness of the pallavas... this chain is cut out of the rock, the corner pillars were decorated with not one but 3 horses and there were quite a few nauthy pictures in there too!

In the evening, after a long chat with Florence, a French traveller who we keep bumping into, the innner shrine came to us as the gods were taken out for an evening visit to the town. Lots of music, flowers and brahmins - sunset outside the main temples entrance, centuries old carvings and buildings.... lovely!!

The Two Temple Tarts xx