Ruins of Mahabalipuram

The ruins of Mahabalipuram, sometimes called the “Angor Wat” of India, is a cite more than 2,000 years old that was the former home of such upscale tenants as the Romans and the Greeks. In this area archeologists found coins marked with Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Constantine the Great, so you timeline people out there can do the math. The guide let us hold some antique coins with the faces of those people on it, and I thought of my colleague and friend A., who would have also treasured (and better understood) the significance of the coins. I tried to channel A. during this whole visit, actually, so thanks to A for her ongoing historical inspiration! The Romans and Greeks came with their gold, silver, and copper to trade for the residents’ cardamom, pepper, and other things I couldn’t write down fast enough. If you ask me, the Romans and Greeks came out ahead of the residents of the area, but that’s just a cook’s perspective.
We had the honor to have as our guide one Dr. Suresh, who is a noted archeologist of this area. He explained that scholars have studied the purpose of this site for a very long time, and the most likely scenario is that these buildings were built as models, prototypes of future buildings, a place where the king would come and choose what he liked. Rather like a spec home only smaller, I’m guessing. It was the vision of one man, Pallaba, who ruled most of south India from the 3rd to 9th century. His nickname was “The Great Wrestler”….WWF fan, I suppose. There are over 100 impressive ruins in this area, and they divide into 4 types.
The first type is a monolith, which is anything made out of a single stone. What you are seeing to the right is an example. This particular statue is one of Lord Shiva as half man, half woman. That guy can do ANYTHING! Anyway, there are 12 differences between the 2 sides, so take a look and start counting. The second type was a small temple structure, and the third was this incredible bas relief you see here. There are several scenes from the Gita in this relief, including Krishna holding up a hill with one finger of his left hand, and a little “naughty cat” to boot. I thought niece B. and daughter A. would especially love the statue of the naughty cat, who is imitating Arjuna doing penance, who is sculpted a little above the cat and to the left as you look at the big scene. The fourth type is a cave temple, an entire temple carved out of a single piece of stone. Columns, relief, standing space, all carved out of one huge piece of stone… It was an intense day (cool by Chennai standards, they say, but nonetheless HOT), but very stimulating and exciting as well. We had a great typical South Indian lunch of thali, a group of small dishes with fantastic puffy bread and more chutney than you know what to do with. We ended the afternoon with a command performance of shadow puppetry of the area by a local master, and the story was again from the Ramayana, and featured one of my favs, Hamuman, keeping Lord Rama out of trouble, flying through the sky, growing and shrinking, and wrestling other monkeys. You gotta love that set of skills!
The Hindu deity today must be the goddess DURGA, who is Parvati’s ferocious incarnation. Her Darth Vader, if you will. It seems when people come to see her, she prefers them to pay homage by cutting their heads off. Keeps the conversation short, I would imagine. If you look carefully at this photo you’ll see the guest getting ready to do the deed. However, I felt at ease with this idea because she’s only ferocious when her children are in danger, rather like one Tiger Mom I know all too well!