We somehow managed to accidentally download an old Lonely Planet for South India, and it took us a while to click that the references to internet cafes, the guides at under half the price we had been quoted and the suggestions of restaurants that don’t exist meant that this was a very old book! It did however, have a quite hilarious description of Mahabalipuram, which I wanted to share -
“And then, in addition to ancient archaeological wonders, there’s the traveller ghetto of Othavadai Cross St. You’ll hear the mellow trills of Jack Johnson. Bob Marley flags hang from the balconies. Stores sell things from Tibet, ‘Indian’ clothes that few Indians would probably ever wear, toilet paper, hand sanitiser and used books, and you know you have landed, once again, in the Kingdom of Backpackistan.”
You can feel the pre-internet days in this paragraph!! We didn’t hear much Jack Johnson or see the Bob Marley flags anymore, but we did see so many stores selling goods primarily from Kashmir and other Northern regions of India. We managed to find a nice silver ring at one of these places that will serve as a fake “wedding ring” on this trip. Often it’s much easier and provokes far fewer questions to claim to be husband and wife!!
Now to jump much further back than pre-internet, we were in town to visit the iconic heritage sites, from the days when the town was the major seaport of the ancient Pallava kingdom based at Kanchipuram. Most of the temples, caves and rock carvings were carved in the 7th century reign of the Pallava King Narasimhavarman I, whose nickname Mamalla (Great Wrestler) gave the town its name. The carvings are mostly Rock Cut Cave Temples, which means they are carved directly into rock hillsides, but the town also features a few Monolithic Rathas which are free standing temples carved from single boulders, in the shape of chariots! There was also one Structural Temple, which is carved from stone blocks. It is so hard to imagine how they moved these big blocks of rock around without modern machinery.
Our favourite piece, which is often regarded as the crown jewel of the area, was Arjuna’s Penance. This is a bas-relief sculpture (one of the largest in the world), carved onto two massive granite boulders measuring about 30 meters long and 15 meters high. It’s a true masterpiece, depicting a grand scene from Hindu mythology with over 100 figures. The main story it tells is of Arjuna performing penance to please Lord Shiva. The sculpture is not without humor, there is a scene near the bottom of the rock with a cat standing on one leg in a similar pose to Arjuna, supposedly performing penance to a group of mice. Another favourite of mine was another small bas-relief sculpture nearby which featured an elephant, a monkey and a peacock. Although not hugely impressive in size, the realistic nature of the animals was incredible, the mother and calf elephant especially.
The Five Rathas or Pancha Rathas are another iconic place in Mahabalipuram, and are often what comes up if you search for the town. These five Monolithic Rathas were carved out of huge boulders and actually still remain unfinished, due to a change of monarch. Can you imagine all that work going into these and then it not being carried on by your successor!! As well as being incredibly impressive in size and detail, these temples mark a pivotal moment in the evolution of South Indian temple architecture. They show the transitions from rock cut cave temples to free standing structural temples with multi tiered towers, elaborate sculptural design and early conceptions of classic temple features such as gopurams, vimanas and mandapas. This influenced the Dravidian style that defined South Indian temple architecture for over a thousand years, which we were to see more of over the coming days.
Often these sandy colored temples light up beautifully at sunset - unfortunately while we were in town it was pretty overcast and rained a bit, but we still were totally enamored with these amazing pieces of iconic architecture. There were a few moments where we had to hide from a quick downpour, and one of these moments resulted in a total swarm of photo requests. We were in a cave temple next to Arjuna’s penance, and knowing we were trapped, I was stuck for about 15 minutes taking a photo with nearly every combination of people in there. We had heard about the photo requests in India, but this was our first experience. Josh somehow managed to sneak off and enjoy the carvings in the far corner of the cave, but I was in it for the long run, joining photo after photo after photo…
Also while in town we found a local restaurant that we just loved, and visited for nearly every meal. Every time we were served by a lovely man called Palani who recommended us dishes, and patiently taught us the order in which to eat a South Indian Thali. It was some of the best food we have had in India so far, and our wallets really appreciated the switch back to local prices after our lavish choices in Pondy. One afternoon we ventured further north, visiting a crocodile zoo and another beach town (both a little underwhelming, to be honest). While on the bike it absolutely poured with rain and by the time we got home we were both drenched from head to toe. I’ve never appreciated a hot shower in a dingy bathroom so much!
After our final morning enjoying some AC and hiding from the periodic downpours, it was time to find our way to the next stop, Tiruvanamallai. So far, showing up blindly at the bus stand and asking which bus we should catch has worked out ridiculously well, but this time not so much… We headed inland and all seemed to be on track, before changing buses at a major junction town. A lovely man had written down instructions for us that led us to our next bus, which we got on with confidence. However soon enough we realised we were heading North instead of South, and were nearly in Chennai. We hopped off after about half an hour, and some lovely local girls took us across the road and flagged down a different bus for us, one that was much more direct and even had AC! The dream! It might have added a couple of hours to our trip, but it was, as with most things here, an adventure we won’t forget.
