Mahabalipuram aka Mahabs

 Arjuna's penance the world's largest bas- relief measuring 27mX9m is the pride of the place. It has carvings of celestial nymphs, gods,beasts, birds etc. adjoining is the rock cut cave represented by other 13 caves around.


                                                        A cross view of the above relief

                               A frame from Varaha cave depicting Vamana placing his third leg on  king Bali'. while keeping one on earth and the other on sky.


                                     The rayar gopuram or mandapam had beautiful carvings from dashaavatar. This i believe was one of the unfinished pallava project.

Mahishasuramardini cave -  It was pathetic to hear a guide telling a few foreign tourists " This is Durga, she is a powerful women who sit on a lion and killed rakshasas". I could only see a perplexed look on the tourists. I am sure they would not know who was durga or what rakshasas meant or do they know india and indian mythology better than indians?!  Tamilnadu tourism, train the guides . They are the cultural ambassadors, i believe. Else, history, mythology and culture gets distorted.
There was a lady guide  who appeared very educated, she was explaining the above relief to a couple of tourists. This was a practice followed in days of yore to show their loyalty to their masters. The men beheaded their heads as shown in the pic by holding their tufts, thus giving way to bali peetams or sacrfiicial altars. A gruesome practice of yore nevertheless beautifully explained by the guide. I found her later traveling in the vehicle of 'The Banyan' organization. so doubt if she was a guide, perhaps a person known to the tourists.  whatever, these places need people like her to appreciate the place.

 This light house was not built by pallavas. It was built in 1900(?) . This has a steep staircase to the top,  My son's cap flew off his head while he was standing on the platform above at the top. 12 noon is the closing time and we were here at 11.45 making us the last few visitors. The rest were not issued tickets. So i had the window all to myself and clicked the below picture of the shore temple from  the top window (just below the railing).
 It is on my wish list to see the shore temple at night and capture it. I believe the temple against the moonlight (flood lit night) against the swish of the waves and ink blue sky is surrreal( as seen in movies). One of the oldest temples of India illustrating the dravidian architecture. 6 such temples are submerged leaving this 7th one alone.

 A street full of workshops outside the lighthouse selling stone art like these. I picked up those beautifully carved lampdomes which are eggshaped. They source their rawmaterials like sand stone, marble from places like Rajasthan, cudappah etc.
 This man was sharpening his tools when i requested him to show how he works, he demonstrated. He has not studied art from a college, but learnt the trade from his father, he belongs to a lineage of stone craftsmen. Perhaps many even trace their lineage to the pallava times.
 Here is a student of fine arts from government college of sculpture and architecture earning on a spare time during his holiday. Buddha and Ganesha are the most selling idols he says. Many of these graduates on graduating hold their own art shops or fly to foreign shores like Srilanka, Indonesia, Singapore etc.,
                       They are icons of art and hold a place of pride in most artistic homes and most foreign       tourists buy them as souveniors.