The Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram is a collection of 7th- and 8th-century CE religious monuments in the coastal resort town of Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, about south of Chennai.Mamallapuram , Encyclopedia Britannica
The site has 40 ancient monuments and Hindu temples, including one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world: the Descent of the Ganges or Arjuna's Penance. The group contains several categories of monuments: ratha temples with monolithic processional chariots, built between 630 and 668; mandapa viharas (cave temples) with narratives from the Mahabharata and Shaivite, Shakti or Shaaktha and Vaishnava inscriptions in a number of Indian languages and scripts; rock reliefs (particularly bas-reliefs); stone-cut temples built between 695 and 722, and archaeological excavations dated to the 6th century and earlier.Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram, Dist. Kanchipuram , Archaeological Survey of India (2014)
The monuments were built during the rule of the Pallava dynasty. Known as the Seven Pagodas in many colonial-era publications, they are also called the Mamallapuram temples or Mahabalipuram temples in contemporary literature. The site, restored after 1960, has been managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.World Heritage Sites - Mahabalipuram , Archaeological Survey of India (2014)
Location and nomenclature The Mahabalipuram temples are in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, about southwest of Chennai on the Coromandel Coast. The monuments are reachable by the four-lane, divided East Coast Road and Rajiv Gandhi Salai (State Highways 49 and 49A). The nearest airport is in Chennai (IATA airport code MAA). The city is connected to the rest of India through a rail network.
Mahabalipuram is known by several names, including Mamallapuram; Mamalla means "Great Wrestler", and refers to the 7th-century king Narasimha Varman I. Other names found in historic texts include Mamallapattana, Mavalipuram, Mavalivaram, Mavellipore, Mauvellipooram and Mahabalipur, all of which refer to a "great wrestler city" or "city of Mahabali". The latter is related to the mythical Mahabali, the demon king defeated by the dwarf Vamana (a Vishnu avatar).KH Vora and S Sundaresh (2003), Mahabalipuram: A Saga of Glory to Tribulations, Migration & Diffusion, Vol. 4, Issue 16, pages 67-68 According to Nagaswamy, the name is derived from the Tamil word mallal (prosperity) and reflects its being an ancient economic center for South India and Southeast Asia. This theory is partially supported by an 8th-century Tamil text by the early Bhakti movement poet Thirumangai Alvar, where Mamallapuram is called "Kadal Mallai".
The town was known as "Seven Pagodas" by European sailors who landed on the coast after they saw the towers of seven Hindu temples. Seventh-century inscriptions refer to it as "Mamallapuram" or close variants; "Mahabalipuram" appears only after the 16th century, and (with Seven Pagodas) was used in colonial-era literature. The Tamil Nadu government adopted Mamallapuram as the official name of the site and township in 1957, and declared the monuments and coastal region a special tourism area and health resort in 1964.
History
Although the ancient history of Mahabalipuram is unclear, numismatic and epigraphical evidence and its temples suggest that it was a significant location before the monuments were built. It is speculated that it is the seaport of Sopatma mentioned in the 1st-century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea or Ptolemy's port of Melange in his 2nd-century Geographia. Another theory posits that the port of Nirppeyarvu mentioned in the Perumpanarrupadai from the late 19th century to early 20th century may be Mahabalipuram or Kanchipuram.
In his Avantisundari Katha, the 7th–8th century Sanskrit scholar Daṇḍin (who lived in Tamil Nadu and was associated with the Pallava court) praised artists for their repair of a Vishnu sculpture at Mamallapuram. However, Daṇḍin's authorship of this text is disputed. The medieval Sanskrit text mentions the Mamallapuram monuments, an early tradition of repairs, and the significance of Vaishnavism.
When Marco Polo (1271-1295 CE) arrived in India on his way back to Venice from Southeast Asia, he mentioned (but did not visit) "Seven Pagodas" and the name became associated with the shore temples of Mahabalipuram in publications by European merchants centuries later. It appeared in Abraham Cresques' 1375 Catalan Atlas as "Setemelti" and "Santhome", a crude map of Asia but accurate in the relative positions of the two ports; the former is Mamallapuram and the latter Mylapore. Venetian traveler Gasparo Balbi mentioned the "Seven Pagodas" and "Eight Pleasant Hillocks" in 1582, which Nagaswamy suggests refers to the monuments. According to Schalk, Balbi called it the "Seven Pagodas of China" (a re-interpretation of Henry Yule's reading of Balbi which considered Balbi unreliable, followed by a selective correction that it probably meant Mamallapuram).
Since there are now fewer than seven towers, the name has inspired speculation and argument.Sundaresh, A. S. Gaur, Sila Tripati and K. H. Vora (2004), Underwater investigations off Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India , Current Science, Vol. 86, No. 9, pages 1231-1237 The December 2004 tsunami briefly exposed the beachfront near Saluvankuppam (now north of Mahabalipuram), revealing inscriptions and structures. Badrinarayanan said in a BBC report that they dated to the 9th century and may have been destroyed by a 13th-century tsunami. The tsunami also revealed large structures on the seabed about a kilometre offshore, which archaeologists speculate may be the ancient Mahabalipuram.Maguire, Paddy. "Tsunami Reveals Ancient Temple Sites." BBC News (Online) 27 October 2005. Retrieval 9 September 2006 . According to a Science article, the tsunami exposed rocks with an "elaborately sculpted head of an elephant and a horse in flight", "a small niche with a statue of a deity; another rock with a reclining lion", and other Hindu religious iconography. Marine archaeologists and underwater diving teams have explored a site east of the Shore Temple, one of the monuments, after the 2004 tsunami. This has revealed ruins of fallen walls, a large number of rectangular blocks and other structures parallel to the shore, and the forty surviving monuments.Sundaresh et al (2014), Shoreline changes along Tamil Nadu coast: A study based on archaeological and coastal dynamics perspective, Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, Vol 43, Issue 7, pages 1167-1176
Modern reports European sailors and merchants who pioneered trade with Asia after the 16th century mentioned the site. Early reports, such as those by Niccolao Manucci (who never visited the site, but saw the monuments from a distance and heard about them) conflated Chinese and Burmese Buddhist pagoda designs with the Hindu temples and assumed that the temples were built by the Chinese. According to Anthony Hamilton's 1727 "New Account of the East Indies", the site was a pilgrimage center and its outside sculpture was "obscene, lewd" as performance in Drury Lane. French writer Pierre Sonnerat was critical of European racism toward Indians, and theorized that the Mahabalipuram temples were very old.
William Chambers' 1788 literary survey of Mahabalipuram brought the monuments to the attention of European scholars. Chambers interviewed local residents and linked the monumental art he saw to Hindu texts, calling it remarkable and expressive in narrative detail. A series of 19th-century studies, such as those by Benjamin Babington and William Elliot, contained sketches of the monuments and impressions of the inscriptions. Some stories and speculation in Western literature, nevertheless, continued to be unusual. Francis Wilford suggested in 1809 that the monuments were built in 450 BCE, linking them to Cicero's (1st century BCE) writings about Indians who might have built three ancient Indian temple cities (including Mahabalipuram).
Nineteenth-century reports note local mentions of "gilt tops of many pagodas" in the surf at sunrise, which elders talked about but could no longer be seen. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Mahabalipuram site was the focus of colonial-era tourist guides and speculation. Portions of many monuments were covered with sand, and little was done to preserve the site. After Indian independence, the Tamil Nadu government developed the Mamallapuram monuments and coastal region as an archaeological, tourism and pilgrimage site by improving the road network and town infrastructure. In 1984, the site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The group has been the subject of archaeological interest since 1990, and excavations have yielded unexpected discoveries. According to John Marr, the site yielded "an apsidal-shaped tank, its curved end aligned south towards the middle portion of the Shore Temple" with an anantasayana (reclining Vishnu) probably predating the temple.
Pallava construction Mamallapuram became prominent during the Pallava-era reign of Simhavishnu during the late 6th century, a period of political competition with the Pandyas, the Cheras and spiritual ferment with the rise of 6th- to 8th-century Bhakti movement poet-scholars: the Vaishnava Alvars and the Shaiva Nayanars. Mamallapuram's architecture is linked to Simhavishnu's son, Mahendravarman I (600-630 CE), who was a patron of the arts. Mahendravarman's son, Narsimha Varman I, built on his father's efforts and most scholars attribute many of the monuments to him. After a brief hiatus, temple and monument construction continued during the reign of Rajasimha (or Narasimhavarman II; 690–728).
Mid-20th-century archaeologist A. H. Longhurst described Pallava architecture, including those found at Mahabalipuram, into four chronological styles: Mahendra (610-640), Mamalla (640-670, under Narsimha Varman I), Rajasimha (674-800) and Nandivarman (800-900). K. R. Srinivasan described it as reflecting three styles and stages of construction, calling the third period the Paramesvara style.
This chronology has been the subject of scholarly disagreement. Some scholars, such as Marilyn Hirsh in 1987, have said that the earliest temples are traceable to about 600 (under the poet-king Mahendravarman I). Other, such as Nagaswamy in 1962, have said that King Rajasimha (690-728) was the probable patron of many monuments; many temple inscriptions contain one of his names and his distinctive Grantha and ornate Nāgarī scripts.R. Nagaswamy (1962), "New Light on Mamallapuram", Transactions of the Archaeological Society of South India, pages 1–50