Mahabalipuram Tour

Recently i was in Chennai for few days , and Mahabalipuram was always in my list before.

Sunday morning took a cab , a 60km drive from T.Nagar Chennai .

This place is also called Mamallapuram, named after the great wrestler Mamalla,the title of Pallava king Narasimha Varman. You need 4-5 hour to visit all places in Mahabalipuram.

The first point was Pancha pandava  Rathas ,each of that five attractive monuments were carved out of single granite stone.the structural detailing will truly make you speechless. Arjuna and one storey Draupadi rathas are dedicated shiva and durga .

As i reached there, i was fascinated by those beautiful stone articles ,shell works at various shops near the parking area.

 

Than we went to Arjuna’s Penance, one of the largest carving on tow adjoining monolothic stones with a length of 96 feet.Illustration from Mahbharat when Arjuna Worshiped shiva is carved beautifully on it.According to another legend the temple also depicts the

instance of Bhagiratha, who did penance to bring holy river Ganga down to earth from heaven.

 

 

Nearby the giant granite stone weighing 250 tonne is noticeable among tourists.I clicked it from far, was not having patience to climb up to that point.Climate was really hot and humid.People were seating besides that giant stone.

After a quick tour , we went our final destination “Shore Temple” ,which overlooks the Bay of Bengal .It has three shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva and Vishnu. It is believed that 7 temples were built initially in 7th century known as seven pagodas ,but the only survivor is the Shore Temple.

 

Go to the other side and you will get a number of eat-joints.Among them “Moonrakers” is quite popular,so i opted that for lunch.But quite disappointed by their bad service, Food was not so great.Prawns are not even cleaned properly .Almost they took more than an hour to give a Fish Meal. Huhh!!

 

And be ready to have beer in a steel Lassi glass here 😉 ,which was again a big disappointing.