on 13th january 2011 we went to :
Mahabalipuram was a 7th century port city of the
South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas around 60 km south from the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The name Mamallapuram is believed to have been given after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, who took on the epithet Maha-malla (great wrestler), as the favourite sport of the Pallavas was wrestling. It has various historic monuments built largely between the 7th and the 9th centuries, and has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The temples of Mamallapuram, portraying events described in the Mahabharata,
built largely during the reigns of Narasimhavarman and his successor Rajasimhavarman,
showcase the movement from rock-cut architecture to structural building.
The mandapa or pavilions and the rathas or shrines shaped as temple chariots are hewn from the granite rock face,
while the famed Shore Temple, erected half a century later, is built from dressed stone.
What makes Mamallapuram so culturally resonant are the influences it absorbs and disseminates. The Shore Temple includes many bas reliefs,
including one 100 ft. long and 45 ft. high, carved out of granite
Shore Temple(Thirukadalmallai )
a structural temple along
the Bay of Bengal with the entrance from the western side away from the sea.
shiva and his wife Parvati
this is an other Avatāra of vishnu : Narasimha
shiva is sleeping
On 26 dec 2004 tsunami polisched sand in a front holy town inside the sea,where there are the other six ancient temples !!!
Arjuna's penance
relief sculpture on a massive scale extolling an episode from the Hindu epic, The
Mahabharata.
Measuring
96 feet (29 m) long by 43 feet (13 m) high, it is a giant open-air relief carved
of the
a monolithic rock.
The monuments and sanctuaries were built by the Pallava kings
in the 7th and 8th centuries. The legend depicted in the relief is the story of
the descent of the sacred riverGanges to
earth from the heavens led by Bhagiratha.
The waters of the Ganges are believed to possess supernatural powers. The
descent of the Ganges and Arjuna's
Penance are
portrayed in stone at the Pallava heritage site
see it.!!! It will fall down tomorrow or in the next year but you ask yourself why it's still here???
Varaha cave temple
all these below are the Avatāra(s) of vishnu
cave Shiva's temple : the Trimurti ‘three forms’ is a concept in Hinduism "in which the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance, and destruction are personified by the forms of Brahmā the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Śhiva the destroyer or transformer,"[1][2] These three deities have been called "the Hindu triad" [3] or the "Great Trinity,"[4], often addressed as "Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh(I am not shure)
shiva and lingam
(still unknow???)temple
Draupadi and Arjuna rathas
It
is believed by some that this area served as a school for young sculptors. The
different
This can be seen in the Pancha
Rathas where
each Rathais sculpted in a
different style. These five Rathas were all carved out of a single piece of
granite in situ.
some sculptures, half finished, may have been examples of different styles of architecture, probably demonstrated by instructors and practiced on by young students.
this is the Avatāra of Danielle!!!!ah ,ah ah.....
and he is brahma,my friend!!!!
Nandi , is the bull which Shiva rides and the gate keeper of Shiva and Parvati in Hindu mythology. Temples venerating Shiva and Parvati display stone images of a seated Nandi