Picture Diary of Nov. 28, 2011 Mahabalipuram

We have arrived drizzling Mahabalipuram. As our second visit, we visited mainly the sites that we missed. Climbing up to the Siva Temple on the top of a tall rock wasn’t easy with strong winds and rain. I didn’t even try the light house there.

Mahabalipuram is another UNESCO World Heritage site. The port city was built by the Pallavan king, Narasimhavarman-I, between AD 630 and 668. Today’s city is also known for stone carvings as it was in ancient times. We could see the plumes of stone dust as we drove into the city. And tinkling of chisels was heard all over the city. I wondered about the health of those carvers who don’t wear any protection masks.

Later we regretted that we didn’t purchase any stone carvings there. In Chennai we couldn’t find anything that we liked. Most of them looked very poorly executed at the government craft store.

Five Rathas (ratha meaning chariot in Sanskrit) is a monolithic temple, and was carved from single piece of rock which was covered by sand until British rediscovered it 200 years ago. Five temples were dedicated to a Hindu god and named for one of the Pandavas, five hero-brothers of the epic Mahabharata plus their common wife, Draupadi.

Since Mahabalipuram is only two hours drive from Chennai, many tourists come here as a day trip. They would stay only for a short time. We were there early in the morning for the good lighting. Meanwhile hordes of tourists came by and left. Often we had the site all for ourselves to enjoy.

The Sculpture Museum was listed in our guide book having 3,000 sculptures. Yes, they might have had 3,000 sculptures; all of them painted very bright. Although that might have been a more authentic ancient idea, that didn’t please us but it was entertaining. Fortunately the admission was only Rs.5 (10 cents). The building itself was more interesting than the exhibits.

By the time we went to the Shore Temple, the drizzling started again. I didn’t even get to the temple this time. I just took the pictures of flowers there.

We ended up our trip with a lunch at Saravana Bhavan in Chennai with Bruce’s colleagues, Thyagu and Arun, the same as the one where we had our first meal in India. We made a loop of this restaurant all over southern India. Thus, we ended our trip.