When we planned our trip around southern India, we intended to include an overnight stay in Mamallapuram. In the event, however, we decided to visit the town on a day trip from Chennai. With the benefit of hindsight, this was a mistake. Mamallapuram is a lovely, friendly town with good hotels and restaurants and a wonderful laid-back atmosphere, to go along with the most amazing antiquities we saw in India. We could happily have spent two or three days there.
As it was, we caught a service bus from the CMBT bus station in Chennai. Its ultimate destination was Pondicherry, but the driver was happy to drop us off on the main highway at the turn off to Mamallapuram, leaving us a walk of about 2 km into town. By the time we’d picked up and dropped off passengers at countless stops, the journey took about two and a half hours, but the fare was a mere 40 rupees (about 50 pence) each!
When we arrived in Mamallapuram, we bought a ticket to visit all of the town’s World Heritage-listed sites. At 500 rupees per person, it seemed expensive, but, later, we agreed it was worth every penny.
Mamallapuram was the major seaport of the ancient Pallava kingdom. The vast majority of the amazing temples and rock carvings you can visit today date from the 7th century reign of the Pallava king, Narasimhavarman I, whose nickname, Mamalla, meaning ‘Great Wrestler’, gave the town its name.
Our first stop was at Shore Temple which, as the name suggests, overlooks the sea. This two-towered temple symbolises the heights of Pallava architecture and the maritime ambitions of Pallava kings. It’s the earliest free-standing stone temple in Tamil Nadu.
On leaving the temple grounds, we were persuaded by an auto driver that we needed his services if we were to see all the sites in the time we had available. He was probably right! It was a long walk between them and it was extremely hot. So, for 300 rupees, we hired him for the remainder of the day.
The first place he took us to was the Five Rathas. These 7th century temples look like buildings, but they were, incredibly, all carved from single large rocks. Each temple was dedicated to a Hindu god. They lay hidden in the sand until they were discovered and excavated by British archeologists 200 years ago.
Ratha is Sanskrit for chariot. This may refer to the shape of the temples or, perhaps, to their function as vehicles for the gods. All five of them, including the unfinished barrel-roofed Bhima Ratha, are very impressive. I was particularly taken, though, with a life-sized stone elephant which stands beside the Nakula-Sahadeva Ratha. It is considered to be one of the most perfectly sculptured elephants in India.
From there, we went to Mamallapuram’s lighthouse where we spent an entertaining half an hour watching the monkeys who have made the place their home.
Krishna’s Butterball was next. This huge boulder is immovable, but appears to be balancing precariously, ready to topple at any moment and crush the tourists who are taking selfies in its shadow!
Our final stop was at Arjuna’s Penance. This giant relief carving is one of India’s greatest ancient artworks and is the crowning masterpiece of Mamallapuram’s stonework. We spent a long time studying the two massive adjacent boulders, both of which are inscribed with highly detailed scenes of Hindu myth and more mundane vignettes of everyday South India life. Many wonderfully carved animals are included in the scenes. it was difficult to take in the complexity of the design.
Just down the road from Arjuna’s Penance, we visited the unfinished Panch Pandava Mandapa cave temple.
Once we had seen the sights, we asked our driver to drop us off in ‘Fishermen’s Colony’, the area of town famed for its restaurants. We saw more white tourists than we had hitherto on this trip, many of them French, probably due to Mamallapuram’s close proximity to Pondicherry. This was our first real taste of the fabled ‘Backpackistan’ and we loved it!
We had a meal in Moonrakers Restaurant which was surrounded by lots of colourful touristy shops. There was a lovely atmosphere and it was great to sit there for a while and watch the world go by. The food was good and much cheaper than we’d been paying in the big cities. Moreover, beer and money changers were readily available, both of which had been hard to find up to now!
After we’d eaten, we wandered up to the junction to catch the bus back to Chennai, vowing to spend less time in big cities on future trips, and more time in small towns like Mamallapuram!
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