swathibalasubramani

[swathibalasubramani]

WONDERS OF MAHABALIPURAM

Welcome to my blog. My name is SWATHI B . In this blog page I will share my whole trip experience.

Talking about glorious past of India, Mahabalipuram comes to my mind. Ancient temples, spell-binding sculptures, rocks reading epic poetry, and mysteries. Mahabalipuram, also known as Mamallapuram, is one of the World Heritage sites and a true testimony to rich Dravidian art and temple architecture.

A popular legend that Gods were jealous of the architectural elegance of Mahabalipuram's monuments, and as a result, they caused floods to occur, which submerged most parts of the city, except for a few structures that are seen now.

This place is located on the East Coast Road in Tamilnadu. The name is said to be derived from the word "Mamallan", which means great warrior, a reference to King Narasimhavarman I., who was known for his love of art and sculpture.

My love for architecture and mysteries brought me to Mahabalipuram, though it was not planned. I was vacationing in Pondicherry and, out of blue planned to explore Mahabalipuram for one day.

Negotiating heavy rain, we started our journey from Pondicherry. The drive from Pondicherry to Mahabalipuram is a scenic one through east coast. Within two hours of the journey, we reached Mahabalipuram and surprised. The reason, weather was changed entirely, became hot and humid.

PANCHA RATHA

The first monument we saw was the Pancha Ratha (Five Chariots) Each of the five monuments in the complex resembles a chariot and named after Pancha Pandavas and their common wife, Draupadi. We bought the composite ticket there that allows you to visit all the monuments with one ticket.

SHORE TEMPLE

The next one was the beautiful shore temple. It is so named because the temple overlooks the shore of the Bay of Bengal. One of the finest examples of rock-cut stone temple. I overheard the conversation that this temple was acted as a landmark for the navigation of ships. I left my car in the parking area, and we walked towards other monuments.

ARJUNA S PENANCE

It is few meters away from the shore temple parking area. You can see it for free as it is on the main road. Its big open-air rock relief carved on two monolithic rock boulders measuring 29 m × 13 m. The panoramic view of life in the forest is skillfully sculptured, and an ensemble of over a hundred figures of gods, people, half-humans, and animals. The cleft between two boulders is brilliantly utilized to show the flow of river Ganga which is evinced by the presence of Nagas and Naginis. The entire stone carvings were looking vivid and lively

KRISHNA S BUTTER BALL

Let me ask you a simple question! What will happen when you place a spherical object on an inclined plane? will it roll down, right? If the diameter of any round object like a ball is less and the base which touches the ground is small, it will travel faster than the most object

But this theory appears to be failing in Mahabalipuram. Next to Arjuna's penance, there is one garden, and there you will see a gigantic granite boulder resting on a short incline and demonstrating an amazing example of a balancing act. You could see this enormous

boulder from outside of the main road, but I went into the garden complex and had a closer look.

As usual, people around it blocked the views, and I was not getting a clear picture. While I was trying to take a close look, one young man asked me if I could take his picture. I said, ok. He then made a perfect pose, with his two hands, he tried to push the boulder. I smiled and took his picture from his mobile phone.Later I noticed that was perfect and typical picture pose for most of the tourists.Few being lazy simply sitting underneath and relaxing. let's talk about its origin, history, and myth around it first.As per Hindu mythology, Lord Krishna often stole butter from his mother's butter handi. Devotees began to view this stone as Krishna's butter and, thus the name Krishna's butterball.

In between Panch Ratha and Shore temple, there is one cave and lighthouse. We didn’t visit those places and left the town.With lots of unanswered questions and admiration for ancient structures, I drove back to rainy Pondicherry from Mahabalipuram's heat