Pondicherry Trip- Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram is one of the major historical and archeological sites in India. The site consists of over a dozen monolithic Hindu temples that tell many of the classic stories of Hinduism. We pulled up to the site and from the very beginning I could tell this was going to be a long day. As soon as we stepped out of the bus we began to be accosted by the "tour guides" that insisted that we couldn't visit the structures with our own private guide...this being Suri our friend and professor of history at MCC. After intense negotiations and almost having my camera confiscated because I snagged a picture of Dr. Khandke telling off the tour guides we moved on to all of the sites. Each site told a different story and was carved out of the huge gneiss boulders that were strewn out across the entire area. I took a TON of pictures so I can't put them all up, but the following photos show some of the stories that were depicted.






This picture about got my camera stolen!



This carving was on the side of the road where we had our little scuffle. The man who is standing on one leg is a king who is protesting to the gods for rain. His kingdom had been experiencing a drought so he began to fast, meditate, and practice yoga to get the gods attention. Lord Shiva seen with the mace has finally arrived because he couldn't take the king torturing himself any more and brings the rains for his people.






Here is a story of a great flood that threatened Mother Earth. The Earth was being flooded with water and turned to Vishnu to save her. The figure in the center with the boars face is a avatar of Lord Vishnu the protector who has put Mother Earth on his knee. You can see that Vishnu has put his foot on the head of a water goddess that represents the great flood. Lord Vishnu has come to save the world 10 times in Hindu history. Interestingly enough his incarnations follow the evolutionary path of life on Earth. Starting with a fish and working up to human form. Also there is a connection to this story and the Christian story of Noah's Ark.



In this sculpture you can see Vishnu lying on the coils of a cobra at the point of creation. Brama during creation will emerge from Vishnu's belly button. But, two demons on the right are attempting to disrupt this process and so Vishnu sends his weapons to kill them. In this panel the weapons are in human form which is common in Hindu sculptures. The weapons including Vishnu's conch are the two figures flying in the center. It is clear that the demons are defeated because they are turned around to run away from the weapons.


This is the most elaborate and beautiful panel in all of Mamallapuram. It depicts the story of Shakti killing the Demon Bull King. According to the story the Bull King could not be killed by man, so the gods each gave there weapons to Shakti to slay the Bull King. A few of the weapons in her arsenal include Vishnu's conch, Rama's bow, and Shiva's mace. I recommend clicking on this and viewing it in it's full extent.



Here is a the coast line temple that we visited last on our trip. It is experiencing a high rate of weathering because of salt crystal precipitation on the rock. This is causing the structure to lose much of the fine detail that once existed.



Here you can see the extent of the weathering. The left side is the side close to the ocean. The right side is shielded from the majority of the weathering and can be seen in it's full detail.



After a long day of dodging beggars, hot sweaty lectures, and some epic storytelling we settled down at the Dune Eco-Resort...so sick. It was a super hippy eco village that was right on the beach and had a sick pool. I think that I could live here forever.......