Group of monuments at Mahabalipuram — archaeological site
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Group of monuments at Mahabalipuram

  • 2 min read
  • 12.617° N 80.192° E
  • UNESCO World Heritage

Interesting facts

  • The Descent of the Ganges relief contains around 146 carved figures, including life-size elephants walking with their calves.
  • Among the figures of the great relief is a cat standing on one leg in mock penance, a nod to a Panchatantra fable about a hypocritical ascetic.
  • A brick cistern once sat above the natural cleft of the relief, so water could pour down it during festivals like the descending river.
  • Scholars still debate whether the central ascetic of the relief is Arjuna seeking a divine weapon or Bhagiratha bringing the Ganges to earth.
  • Krishna's Butterball weighs an estimated 250 tonnes; in 1908 a governor of Madras reportedly tried to shift it with seven elephants and failed.
  • The boulder's old Tamil name, Vaan Irai Kal, means 'stone of the sky god'.
  • The name Seven Pagodas already appears on the Catalan Atlas of 1375, drawn from sailors' accounts of the temple towers on the shore.
  • The Olakkannesvara temple on the hill was used as a lighthouse, and its name is linked to the measure of oil burned daily to keep a flame alight.
  • The 2004 tsunami uncovered 9th-century inscriptions and structures at nearby Saluvankuppam, which may have been buried by a tsunami centuries earlier.
  • The Panchapandava mandapa is the largest cave temple at the site and was left unfinished, with traces of a planned walkway and wall reliefs.

Why it is worth it

Mahabalipuram, officially Mamallapuram, is a small resort town on the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu. Its official name honours the 7th-century king Narasimhavarman I, known as Mamalla, the "great wrestler". Under the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries it was a busy port, and its sculptors turned the granite outcrops of the shore into about forty monuments: cave temples, monolithic shrines shaped like processional chariots, open-air reliefs and some of the earliest free-standing stone temples in south India. European sailors called the place the Seven Pagodas. The site was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1984 and is managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The Descent of the Ganges, also called Arjuna's Penance, is one of the largest rock reliefs in the world. It is carved across two boulders about 27 m long and 9 m high and crowded with gods, sages, people and animals drawn from Hindu mythology. Nearby, the Krishna mandapa shows the god lifting Mount Govardhana to shelter herders and cattle, with scenes of village life woven in. Krishna's Butterball is a huge granite boulder that appears to balance impossibly on a slope. The cave temples cut into the main hill are worth seeking out. The Varaha cave shows Vishnu as a boar rescuing the earth goddess, and the Mahishasuramardini cave has one of the finest carvings on the site: Durga on her lion charging the buffalo demon.

At the southern end stand the Pancha Rathas, five shrines each cut from a single block of rock. Popular tradition names them after the Pandava brothers of the Mahabharata and their wife Draupadi, though in fact they were dedicated to Hindu deities. They show a range of roof forms, from the hut-like Draupadi Ratha to the apsidal Nakula-Sahadeva Ratha, with a carved lion, bull and elephant standing among them. Several were left unfinished. These experiments became a model for later south Indian temples.

The Shore Temple, facing the Bay of Bengal, is the most photographed monument. Its two Shiva shrines date from the early 8th century under King Rajasimha, and a Vishnu shrine between them is older; restored Nandi bulls line the enclosure wall. After the 2004 tsunami the sea briefly exposed more carved remains near the beach, and divers have mapped structures offshore. Visit early or late in the day to avoid the midday heat.

Getting there

The monuments are spread across Mahabalipuram town, about 60 km south of Chennai. The four-lane East Coast Road and Rajiv Gandhi Salai link the two, and the town is also connected to the rail network. The nearest airport is Chennai International (MAA), about 41 km away by straight line.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Tamil Nadu 6The Most Beautiful Places in India 90The Most Remarkable UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Sites in India 5The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites in India 6The Greatest UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Wonders in India 8The Greatest Archaeological Wonders in India 11The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India 26The Most Remarkable UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Sites 114The Greatest UNESCO-Listed Archaeological Wonders 149The Most Remarkable Archaeological Sites 193The Greatest Archaeological Wonders 306The Most Beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Sites 557

From the encyclopaedia

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 60 kilometres (37 mi) south of Chennai.

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