A walk through Mahabalipuram transports you back to the creation of the town’s intricate stonework more than a millennium ago. The UNESCO World Heritage Site exhibits ancient reliefs with architectural innovations in sculptural artistry; its crafted temples beautifully depict the town’s religious and cultural devotion. Mahabalipuram is located on the shores of Tamil Nabu, approximately 40 miles south of Chennai. Keep in mind you only can tour the town’s monuments during daylight hours, and there is no access on holidays.
- Decorating the hills above Mahabalipuram, mandapam -- cave temples -- are ornately and masterfully carved rooms constructed as religious sanctuaries. Mahabalipuram preserves more than 10 mandapam, each with elaborate relief carvings depicting religious stories and deities. The most noteworthy cave temples are mandapa of Varaha, depicting the story of Vishnu’s avatar; the mandapa of the Five Pandavas, the largest of the town’s cave temples; the mandapa of Krishna, illustrating tales of the incarnate Vishnu; and the mandapa of Mahishasuramardini, which displays large, intricate reliefs of several important Hindu legends. The mandapam lie 1/4 mile southwest of the Mahabalipuram bus station.
Monolithic Chariots
- Amid the impressive artistry scattered about Mahabalipuram, perhaps the most monumental are the town’s monolithic temples; five of them are particularly remarkable for bearing detailed embellishments including relief frescoes and giant animal sculptures. The full-scale Pancha Rathas, translated as five chariots, are ornate temples carved from solid-granite outcroppings that resemble chariots of the gods. The Five Rathas are Arjuna, Bhima, Dharmaraja, Nakula-Sahadeva and Draupadi Rathas, each unique in representing an avatar or historic event. The Dharmaraja ratha is the most impressive from a sculptural perspective; standing three stories tall, it combines layers of ornamental relief with architectural and geometric precision. A visit to the Five Rathas requires a small fee, but the structures, located 1 mile southwest of the bus station, are must-sees.
- Temple by the Sea
- Structure temples in Mahabalipuram represent a later period of architecture. Construction of these temples did not involve sculpture and carving; rather, their construction employed cut stone. There are several such temples scattered about Mahabalipuram, but the grandest and best preserved of these is the colossal Shore Temple. Erected in the early eighth century, the temple consists of two large, pyramidal shrines – one dedicated to Vishnu and one to Shiva – and several smaller shrines that stand on a carved outcropping overlooking the sea. Statues of Vishnu, Shiva and several avatars fill the temple's grounds, although many are indistinguishable because of erosion from ocean air. The Shore Temple is located about 200 yards east of the bus station, on the shores of Mahabalipuram; there is a nominal entrance fee.
Two-hundred-ton Butter Ball
- Krishna’s Butter Ball is a natural and curious phenomenon – a giant granite boulder perilously resting on a smooth, inclined granite slope. It seems like a gentle breeze could send the 17-foot-diameter “butter ball” hurtling down its escarpment, but locals are confident in its physics-defying nature and take shelter under the shade of the boulder in hot summer months.
