Mukunda Nayanar temple is a small structural temple, which is believed to be built by Rajasimha Pallava. It was buried under the sand and was excavated few decades back. The inner shrine has a sculputral panel of Somaskanda – Shiva, Parvati and baby Skanda with Vishnu and Brahma behind them. The front side mandapa is supported by two cirular pillars and two pilasters. The temple has an octagonal tower.

This small but important monument of Mamallapuram always remains closed. It would be better if the Government makes arrangement for tourists to visit this monument like other important monuments of the town.

Happy travelling.

Valaiyankuttai Ratha is located at the other side of the town – in a very remote location. The access to the site is not very easy. It is slightly rocky and bushy. Pidari Rathas monument is in a remote place. You need to pass Pidari Ratha and travel for another 300 m – 400 m to reach Valaiyankuttai Ratha. You can hardly find anyone in this place. If you are visiting this site, beware of snakes, stray dogs and even mentally retarded people sometimes who have made the surroundings as their home.

The wondeful monument, neglected by tourists as well ASI, resembles Arjuna’s Ratha (of Five Rathas) in its architectural style. The two storey small but beautiful monument remains slightly unfinished at the lower portion. The small mandapa supported by two pillars and pilasters do not have any deity or idol. The cornice is seen with shoe shaped window. The miniature shrines are found above the cornice in regular intervals. The three sides of outer walls have the bas reliefs of miniature shrines.

It is definitely a worth visiting spot. Don’t miss this.

Happy travelling.

Pidari Rathas are located on the other side of the town, almost at the border of the town. Most of the monuments are located at the heart of the town and on the hill. Only Pidari Rathas and Valaiyankuttai Ratha are located at the remote location.

Pidari Rathas are two incomplete rathas; one ratha faces east direction whereas the other one face north. Both the rathas have two storeys. In both, only the upper part is complete; the lower portion is not completely done. Above the cornice, the regular arrangement of miniatur shrines are found in both the rathas. The shoe faced windows with human faces carved within are found on the cornice. In one of the rathas, the makara torana is carved in the niche in the side wall.

When you go to visit Mamallapuram, just not stop with visiting the important sites. Ensure that you spend some effort and time to visit this extraordinary monument.

Happy travelling.

The monument is located at a distance of around 0.5 km from Koneri tank. Koneri tank is a well known landmark in Mamallapuram. Unfortunately, the monument located near the tank has not become popular as the tank. The tank is located at the backside of the hill where all the monuments are located. From the tank, if you travel for about 300 m to 400 m, you can find a small pond like pit filled with water. Near that, there is a small stone bed with lion faced stone pillow. If you travel further for another 300 m, you will reach Koneri Mandapa. The other way to reach Koneri Mandapa is from a little known passage near Trimurthy cave temple. It is unfortunate that both the paths to Koneri Mandapa are not safe. People dealing with illegal activities or drinking alcohol are generally found in these places.

The west facing Koneri Mandapa is a five celled pillared hall. Two rows of pillars are found in the mandapa. The cornice of the cave temple on the front facade has nine horse shoe shaped windows. Above that few miniature shrines are found. The roof is left unfinished. All the five cells are found empty nowadays. Based on the different shapes of dwarapalak images carved at the entrance of each shrine, the scholars believe that these shrines are dedicated to five different forms of Lord Shiva.

There is another west facing cave located north of Koneri Mandapa. It is excavated into the same rock. The front facade is supported by four thick pillars and two pilasters. 

Happy travelling.

Ramanuja Mandapa is supposed to be a completely finished monument. (Please note that there are many monuments in Mamallapuram which are unfinished.) However, it is unfortunate to find that the monument is vandalised to a great extent.

The triple celled east facing cave shrine had the bas relief of Somaskanda in the central cell. The bas relief panel is not found today. The other two cells could have been dedicated to Brahma and Vishnu. The front facade of the cave monument is supported by two lion face pillars and two lion face pilasters. Two dwarapalaks images were present beyond the pilasters which are not found today. The extreme ends of both the sides have two small shrines with beautiful vimanas.

There is a small mandapa found in front of the cave shrine, which is a later additon. The stair cases that are found in either sides of the monument are also later additions. There is a tiny stone bed found opposite to the shrine.

Ramanuja Mandapa, although vandalised, looks attractive. When you visit Mamallapuram, ensure that you do not miss this great place.

Happy travelling.

Rayar Gopuram is an unfinished tower. Had it been constructed completely, it would have been a magnificent structure. Perhaps, this was planned to be a gateway of all the monuments in the hill. It is not known what was the objective of this tower and the reason why this is called as Rayar Gopuram.

Rayar Gopuram has two pillars in the middle. Both the pillars have the image of a lady standing on top of yazhi, the mythological animal. The above panel of both the pillars have the images of Dasavatar. Apart from these pillars, there are two pairs of pilasters in the front side of the tower and two similar pairs of pilasters in the back side.

This unfinished but beautiful tower is a popular landmark. A lot of cine shootings of South Indian films happen in this site.

Happy travelling.

Krishna’s butter ball is a giant natural rock perched on the hillside near the popular monument Arjuna’s Penance. As it resembles butter ball, it is called as Lord Krishna’s butter ball. You can find tourists visit this rock and pose for photographs. You can also find a lot of people taking shelter under this shady rock.

Happy travelling.

On the right side of the popular Arjuna’s Penance monument, Pancha Pandava Mandapa is located. It falls under the category of rock cut cave temples. The east facing monument is 50 feet long. This monument is an unfinished work. There is a central cell (shrine) without any deities. The front facade of mandapa is supported by six lion base pillars and two lion base pilasters. Behind these six pillars, there is another row of four pillars and two pilasters.

According to some scholars, this monument should have been started by the Pallava king Parameshvaravarman I (672 – 700 AD) and completed by his successor Rajasimha (700 -728 AD).

When you visit Arjuna’s Penance next time, ensure that you visit this beautiful Pancha Pandava Mandapa too.

Happy travelling. 

Arjuna’s Penance, the 90 feet by 30 feet bas relief base, can be considered as a master piece of Pallava art. Such a magnificent bas relief cannot be seen anywhere else. There are more than 100 bas relief images carved in the rock. The upper right side of the monument has the images of Lord Shiva and Arjuna, one of the Mahabharata heroes, standing in one foot doing penance. There are several arguments and counter arguments on whether this image represents Arjuna or the king Bhagirath. As it is beyond my ability to decide if it represents Arjuna or Bhagirath, let me call it as Arjuna for the purpose of writing this article, as this is how majority of people call this monument. This particular section of the bas relief is considered as the main theme of the entire monument and it is called as ‘Arjuna’s Penance’.

Lord Shiva is seen with four hands carrying a weapon which looks like a distorted Trishul on his upper right arm. He is surrounded by Shiv Ganas. One particular Gana’s image is interesting. His belly resembles lion’s face. Arjuna is seen as bony and thin with a long beard, obviously to depict that he was into penance for a long time. He is also found to be standing on one leg and raising both his hands.

The left side of Shiva has two hunters behind a tree and a lion behind them. There are also many animals such as monkey, deer and lions. Two more hunters are found carrying probably a dead animal. On top, various images of Devas couples and Kinnara couples (human body and bird legs and wings) are found. Surya (the Sun God) is also found above Shiva.

The lower left side of the monument is almost empty and no image is found. Exactly below the image of Arjuna, a small shrine with Lord Vishnu is found. An ascetic, who appears to be Guru, along with three other ascetics who appear to his disciples are found near this shrine. There are few ascetics, naga couples, divine couples and birds who face towards the middle slit. 

Althoug the main theme of the monument is believed to be Lord Shiva and Arjuna, it is true that most of the images in this monument face towards the middle slit. The middle slit has nagaraja (serpent with male human face) on top, naga kanni (serpent with female human face) in the middle and a snake in the bottom. Probably the middle slit represents a river. 

The lower right side of the monument has two magnificent life size relief images of elephants with their three babies nearby. A cat standing with its upper arms raised above its head as if doing a penance is an attractive image found near the elephants.

The right side of the monument has a lot of small images representing Kinnara couples and divine couples. Various animals such as lions, deer and other birds are also found across the right section of the monument. One particular image of lion is very attractive. Its tail looks like the number ‘8′. The image of Chandra (the Moon God) is found on the upper right side.

It is very difficult to write about the features and specialities of all the images in this bas relief monument. Rather than just reading this article, one has to visit this extraordinary site and get the real experience.

A place that should not be missed by anyone travelling to India.

Happy travelling.

Different Types of Monuments:

The historical town of Mamallapuram is popular due to its ancient monuments and sculptures of Pallava kings. The monuments of Mamallapuram can be categorized into cave temples, monoliths or rathas, bas reliefs and structural temples. Pallava king Mahendravarman I constructed cave temples. His successor Narasimhavarman I (popularly called as Mamallan) started constructing monolith monuments (in addition to constructing cave temples). Both these types of monuments were constructed by his successor Parameshvaravarman I. His successor Rajasimha Narasimhavarman II introduced structural temples.

Five Rathas:

As mentioned above, Narasimhavarman I (630-668 AD) was the one who started a new style of carving the temple out of a monolith. Such temples are called as rathas in Tamil language, which means chariot. Mamallapuram has a lot of such monolith monuments. Out of them, Five Rathas is the most popular one.

Five Rathas is one of the much visited monument in Mamallapuram. Those who visit Mamallapuram generally do not miss to visit Five Rathas, Arjuna’s Penance and Shore Temple. In Tamil language, the place is called as Aindhu Ratham or Anju Ratham. It is also named as Pacha Pandava Ratha, although it has nothing to do with the heroes of the great epic Mahabharat. As per the name, this site has five monoliths or rathas. 

Four out of five rathas are carved out of a single whale-back rock which has a gradual increase in height from north to south. Some of the rathas here could have been completed even by Narasimhavarman’s successor, Parameshvaravarman I.

Draupadi Ratha:

Draupadi Ratha is the smallest ratha of the group and it is located on the northern end. This west facing ratha is found on a high rise platform, which is supported by alternating elephant and lion head images. The roof looks like a thatched roof.

The front facade has two female dwarapalaks, whereas inside the cell a magnificent carved image of  Durga is found. Durga is standing on a lotus and depicted with four hands carrying sankha and chakra in her upper hands. Her one lower hand is in abhaya mudra and another one is resting on her waist. There are two devotees found at her foot, one is sacrificing his head and the other one is offering flowers. This is perhaps a rare scene to find and throws light on some practices followed in those days. There are four Shiv Ganas standing behind the Goddess.

There are three niches carved at the three walls surrounding the ratha. In all the niches, the image of Durga standing on a buffalo head is found. In front of this ratha, a 6 feet high lion carved out of boulder is found. This lion sculpture is very popular in this site. It attracts a lot of tourists to pose for photographs.

Arjuna Ratha:

Arjuna Ratha is found next to Draupadi Ratha sharing the same platform. It also faces the western direction. This ratha is a two storey structure with an octagonal dome on the top. The front facade is supported on two pillars and two pilasters. The pilasters are in turn supported by lion images. The first floor has eight niches adorned with couples, two on each side. This cannot be seen from outside and public is not allowed to the first floor. 

Although the shrine is empty now, it is believed that it was dedicated to Lord Shiva once. The northern side of the external wall, there is a niche found with Vishnu carrying sankha and chakra mounting on Garuda. The proper left is empty and further left has dwarapalak. The proper right of Vishnu has two couples and further right has another dwarapalak.

The eastern side wall has Subramanya (or Indra?) on his mount elephant. Two beautiful female figures are found on its proper right and a sage with his disciple on its proper left. Further right has a dwarapalak holding a bow and another dwarapalak on further left side.

The souther wall has Shiva leaning on his mount Nandi, the bull. On the either side of this niche two couples are seen. The further right and left sides have the images of dwarapalaks.

The east side of the ratha, that is on the back side of the ratha, a gigantic image of Nandi, carved out of single rock is found. It is very popular among the tourists. Unfortunately, they do not seem to understand the importance of such great sculpture. They tend to sit on the rock and pose for photographs. It would be better if ASI or Government of India somehow ensures that such monuments are not even touched by such miscreants.

Bhima Ratha:

After Draupadi ratha and Arjuna ratha, Bhima ratha is the third in line. The architecture resembles the early Buddhist style. The structure is oblong in plan and has two storeys. The ground floor is not furnished. A prakara (circumambulatory) path is planned all around supported by pillars. The corners appear to be unfinished lion base pillars. It appears that this temple could have dedicated to Lord Vishnu, however ther is no record to proove that.

The area between the ground floor and the first floor are connected with a row of small oblong shrines. The small shrines are covered with the wagon shaped roofs. The first storey has wagon shaped roof which is supported by a rectangular structure with niches carved at regular intervals. Some niches have unfinished human figures. The northern side of roof is more finished when compared to that of the southern end. A shrine with octagonal vimana topped with a spherical roof is found.

Dharmaraja Ratha:

Dharmaraja is the biggest among all the five shrines and it is located in the southern end. Although its architecture resembles the Arjuna Ratha, it has three storeys instead of two storeys. The ratha is open in all the sides; each side is supported with two pillars and two pilasters.

The external side of the ground floor are carved with eight nices. The west wall has the icon of Shiva in sambhaga mudra with his two upper arms hanging down and one of his upper arms holding a snake by its tail. His lower right arm is in abhaya mudra and the other lower arm is resting on his waist. He is shown with jatamukuta on his head. There is another icon of Shiva on the west side niche. He is seen with a big jatamukuta on his head. He has four hands and wears a very short lower garment held around his waist by a snake. He is seen wearing large earrings.

The north side wall has two niches. Brahma is found in one niche whereas Harihara – a combination of Vishnu and Shiva is seen in the other niche. The eastern wall has two niches too. In one niche the amazing icon of Ardhanareeswarar is found. The masculine and feminine features of the icon are clearly and beautifully depicted from head to toe in this icon. This is one of the most masterpieces found in the entire site. Another icon has Subramanya with four hands standing in the sambhaga posture.

The south side wall also has two niches. In one niche, Shiva is found in the sambhaga posture. Another niche has the important image – the icon of Pallava king Narasimhavarma I aka Mamallan. 

The first and second floor also have a lot of beautiful niches with outstanding icons. However, it is unfortunate that public is not allowed to visit those floors.

Sahadeva Ratha:

Sahadeva ratha is the last ratha in the group which is architecturally as well as location-wise standing away from the rest of the four shrines. There is a possibility that the ratha was dedicated to Indra as the elephants are found on the doors. Also, there is a magnificent life size elephant figure carved out of a single rock stands near the shrine. The shrine has its facade supported by two pillars with lion base theme. The middle cell has two pilasters on outside with elephants carved on the base such as forming the guards of the deity inside the cell. The architecture of the shrine follows gajapristha style, resembling back side of elephant. 

Five rathas are definitely one of the most outstanding monuments not only in Mamallapuram but in the entire India. I tried my level best to cover the features of this shrine in detail to some extent. I wish those who read this article should visit the site and notice all the intrinsic features. Importantly, please do not stand on elephant, sit on bull or spoil any monuments by any means in the name of posing for the photos.

Happy travelling.