Mahabalipuram

Warning: This post will be long and full of photos of ancient things. I can't help my nerdiness.

We've been meaning to visit Mahabalipuram, a village about an hour and a half south of here, for a while. It's a small town now, but in the 7th and 8th centuries it was a busy harbor for the Pallavas civilization. The ancient temples scattered throughout the town are listed collectively as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

John spoke at a tour guide convention last week and connected with the president of the India Federation of Tour Guides, who agreed to show us around Mahabalipuram. Woot! Friends in high places. So on Saturday we dragged the kids around the ancient sites in all kinds of heat and humidity, then we rewarded them with lunch on the beach.

Here's a picture of Evie, looking fresh and ready for a day of exploration. She's swatting away mosquitoes in the back of our car. Oh, the mosquitoes ... that's a post for another day.

After a nice ride down the East Coast Road and a quick bathroom break at the Radisson Hotel (swanky ... but our guide knows everyone), we stopped at the huge monolithic rock carving known as The Descent of the Ganges. The photos don't do it justice. The size of the structure, the detail of the carving, and the fact that you're looking at something that was made over 1,500 years ago ... it's just stunning.

The monument is part open-air relief (this only shows a portion) and part cave temple, which is a room that was cut into the stone. Incredibly, it's all carved from one piece of rock.

More of the relief. The elephants are life size.

Detail from the relief: On the right you'll see a cat standing on its hind legs. It's thought to represent a story from the Panchatantra, a collection of ancient animal fables, in which a cat pretends to be a worshipper performing an austerity. When the rats come near, he grabs them for lunch.

In this detail, you can see Lord Shiva and his attendants at the upper left. The attendants are always portrayed as short, fat men. Next to Shiva is a worshipper performing an austerity. Some say it's the warrior Arjuna. In the bottom right corner is a deity that's half snake, half human. I've seen this one around quite a bit. Asoka (our guide) told me it's called a naga. The female form is sometimes called a nagini ... aha!

The monument is named for the story it tells: The descent of the River Ganges from heaven to earth. It's a long, complicated story involving the death of 60,000 princes and the efforts of the princes' nephew to bring them back to life. A nephew ... This means that there were at least 60,001 siblings. To make a long story short (too late), the gods send the sacred waters to earth, but the rush of water threatens to destroy everything. To save the world, Shiva allows the water to run through his hair, softening its impact. The cleft in the rock (you can follow it down from the top) is the Ganges.

View from the cave temple side

Samuel looking like he's on the catwalk

Evie and Johnny exploring the site. For a while I tried to keep them off the rocks (Did I mention that these temples were built between 630 and 728?), but I gave up pretty quickly. The Indian tourists were climbing all over everything, so it must be kosher.

A smaller cave temple had this relief of Shiva holding up a mountain. I don't know why he's doing this, because at this point I was paying more attention to Samuel's screeching than I was to our guide.

A broader view of the relief. I like the figure of the flute player in the upper right corner.

The Pallavas were seafarers and traded all around South Asia, but some people say this image of a sphynx shows that they went even farther. Roman coins have been found in the area, too.

Before we go on, I have to tell you that John searched these monuments for evidence of alien influence. None. He assures me that it's just well hidden. Here's a picture of the alien expert doing some wheeling and dealing. I've never come across street vendors quite so in-your-face as they are at Mahabalipuram. It doesn't help that Samuel grabs at any pretty thing he sees. "Surely this nice woman is giving me this necklace. Why won't Mom let me take it?" This is how I ended up with 10 beaded necklaces that I didn't really want. It only cost $2, though, so I guess it's no big deal.

The next site we visited is called Pancha Rathas, or Five Rathas. There are five (surprise!) temples at the site, each a monolith and each in a different style. Some people think it was used as a school for sculptors. One thing that backs this up is the placement of the elephant next to a shrine with a top that mimics the shape of the elephant's rump.

Detail of Shiva's servants

This is known as the Mona Lisa of Mahabalipuram.

The kids did a lot of their own excavation, mostly turning up broken glass bangles. I'm reasonably sure Samuel didn't eat any of them.

Not looking as fresh as she was in the car, but still happy.

Johnny discovered a secret passage.

This form is supposed to represent Shiva and his consort (wife?) Parvati, showing the interconnectedness between male and female. The two making one whole?

If you look closely, you'll see ancient text above the figure on the bottom left.

We're in the middle of Vinayakar Chathurthi, a 10-day festival celebrating Ganesh. These men are taking a decorated statue of Ganesh to be submerged in the ocean. The parade is crazy and colorful, with loud music and dancing. Don't get too close, though, or you'll be hit with colored water. As Asoka put it, "They can be quite rude about it." We've seen several of these parades in the last few days.

After admiring (and dodging) the Ganesh festivities, we hiked up a small hill to a temple some people call the lighthouse. They call it the lighthouse because the real name is Mahishasuramardini Mandapam. No lie.

The lighthouse is a cave temple with a newer (8th century ... just yesterday) shrine built on top. The full view looks something like an elephant with a seat (howdah) on top. At some point, a fire was lit on top of the howdah to guide ships into port. This is another reason they call it the lighthouse.

At what is Evie gazing with such rapt attention?

Why, it's this famous relief depicting a battle between the Goddess Durga (Parvati when she's in warrior form) and the buffalo-headed demon Mahishasura.

After a not-so-quick stop at a shop, where I admired a gorgeous patchwork tapestry and the shopkeeper gave Samuel a bottle of Coke because "he really wants it, ma'am," we moved on to the Shore Temple. It's called the Shore Temple, because it's built on the shore of the Bay of Bengal. If you're worried about Samuel, it's OK ... John successfully traded him for Fanta orange before even a quarter of the Coke was downed. Gah! Samuel is constantly appearing before me with four cookies in his hands because "he really wants it, ma'am." I digress. Back to the Shore Temple, which was really a breathtaking site.

This site is one of the oldest examples of constructed temples, meaning that the shrine was built with blocks of granite taken from somewhere else. This temple shows much more wear than the others (monoliths) did, and Asoka had a very interesting theory on that. He said it shows that rock is a living thing, and that when it's taken from its natural place it doesn't hold up as well to the elements. The monoliths were certainly in better condition. Could it be that the Shore Temple looks more weathered because it's right on the shore? Anyway, it's something to think about.

Legend is that the Shore Temple is one of seven temples that used to be along this coast. I think Marco Polo called them Seven Pagodas. For a long time people thought that was just legend, but after the tsunami in 2005, pieces from other, unknown, shrines have been found. So now the theory is that there really were seven temples.

Many Hindu temples have a temple tank that's used for ritual washing.

These are fishermen on the beach near the Shore Temple. The granite sticking up out of the beach is the kind of rock into which the shrines are carved. Asoka said something about glaciers and millions of years ago, but I missed it because I was trying to keep children from falling to their deaths.

A natural granite formation. It looks like it's going to roll over and crush the people sitting in its shade. Maybe this is evidence of aliens ... I'll have to ask John what he thinks.

After a long morning of exploring, we went back to the Radisson (Asoka knows people, remember?) and had a fantastic, though very late, lunch. Johnny, being the seafood lover that he is, was in heaven. He had an awesome crab soup and a bunch of huge prawns. We had to talk him down from lobster.

Samuel spent most of lunchtime making new friends.

I love this picture of Evie and Johnny relaxing after a good lunch and a fun time at the adjoining playground.

And here's how Samuel spent the ride home.

We're already planning a return trip, or two, or three ...