India, Sri Lanka and The Maldives - Days 49 & 50 - Mamallapuram

Harvesting salt at the salt fields at Marakkanam

Day 49

Another day, another 09.00 departure. I suspect the Explore trip in Sri Lanka won’t be so relaxed! Two hours to Mahabalipuram (very difficult to say, it’s now called Mamallapuram which is much easier to say, but no one uses it unfortunately) with a quick stop to look at the salt beds, where we met our last guide, Mirli. A very nice lady from Chennai. She had got the bus for two hours to show us round, and was then getting the bus home again. We will meet her again in Chennai.

Harvested salt ready for collection

More temples, this time built by the Pallava dynasty who were between the two Cholla dynasties in the 7th and 8th centuries. These were very different, with many of them, amazingly, being carved out of a single piece of rock. What Brian found most astounding though was that some of them weren’t finished despite the huge amount of work that had gone into chiselling them out of a single piece of granite as once it was realised that they could fulfill all the requirements needed for a temple there was no point in finishing them! The first 5 rathas are another UNESCO site (we’ve seen more UNESCO sites here than anywhere else in the world). There are two interesting relief sculptures with stories that actually seems to make sense, as opposed to the usual carvings of deities. From the Rough Guide: “Mamallapuram’s most celebrated bas-relief, Arjuna’s Penance (also referred to as the “Descent of the Ganges)The surface of this rock erupts with detailed carving, most notably endearing and naturalistic renditions of animals. On the left-hand side, Arjuna, one of the Pandava brothers and a consummate archer, is shown standing on one leg. 

Jackie with our very nice guide Mirli at the Five Rathas. Believe it or not, all these were sculptured from solid granite. Mirli believes it would have taken about 30 years to create these to this level and they are not finished. At some point they were abandoned as they didn't meet the criteria for temples. Can you just imagine someone spending most of their working life creating these to this level and then being told they are not right, stop work and forget it? They were almost completely buried under sand when a British engineer discovered them and excavated to this level. What a find!

He is looking at the midday sun through a prism formed by his hands, meditating on Shiva, who is represented by a nearby statue fashioned by Arjuna himself. The Shiva Purana says that Arjuna made the journey to a forest on the banks of the Ganges to do penance, in the hope that Shiva would part with his favourite weapon, the pashupatashastra, a magic staff or arrow. Shiva eventually materialized in the guise of Kirata, a wild forest-dweller, and picked a fight with Arjuna over a boar they both claimed to have shot. Arjuna only realized he was dealing with the deity after his attempts to drub the wild man proved futile; narrowly escaping death at the playful hand of Shiva, he was finally rewarded with the weapon. To the right of Arjuna, a natural cleft represents the Ganges, complete with nagas – water spirits in the form of cobras. You may well see sudden movements among the carved animals: lazing goats often join the permanent features. The shore temple made 50 years later than the rathas is made out of dressed stone, but is still impressive, though not as impressive as Mirli saying that she left there, with clients 20 minutes before the tsunami hit in 2004. They have built new sea defences due to the tsunami, though only 3 people died, but are still working on the temples, lion and walls that were cleared of sand as the water receded. Obviously underwater exploration is difficult but they have realised that the sea has risen hugely over the years covering large numbers of buildings and ruins.

The bull is unfinished but very friendly looking

Two hours very well spent despite the stifling heat as it radiated from the granite as well as the already extreme temperature. Rounded off with Krishnas butterball a precariously looking balanced rock. We couldn’t move it, but then many elephants have been employed to try and move it and they couldn’t either!

Look at the detail work on this temple that never was - and carved from a single block of granite

A little lunch before checking in at our beach resort hotel. It is maybe a little tired, but the beach makes up for it. If you are lucky enough to be able to shelter under one of the solid umbrellas. Which we were. The beach still shelves quite steeply, but not quite as bad as the last time we were on the beach, near Kovalam, so as long as you keep your wits about you you can go and play in the breakers that are the temperature of a bath! Such fun. The resort has also scored a resounding hit with us as there is a small book exchange which we have both been able to take advantage of. Hurrah. This is something that has been sadly lacking, there have been a few, and then there have been a few that are libraries so you may borrow a book but not swap, which I find ridiculous, and irritating as I don’t believe many people stay long enough anywhere we’ve been to read a book, and what earthly difference does it make to the hotel what the actual books are that they have on the shelf?

The unfinished elephant

Shareef said we had to go out to the Fisherman’s village, and he was right. We had a lovely, if expensive, whole fish and tiger prawns, one cooked with a great masala and one with salt and peppers. Which restaurant to choose tonight?

With his small Indian elephant ears

Day 50

A very lazy day, onto the beach after breakfast, so fortunately we got a shade though looking at Brian that is actually hard to believe. Can only be reflected sun, but even so, he has a very red face!

More granite carvings from about 700AD. The whole scene tells a story, it isn't just images of gods

We played in the sea, twice, which encouraged the Dutch couple to go in a second time. She hadn’t gone in far enough the first time, so you get the breakers knocking you over all the time, though you don’t want to go out of your depth as that is far too scary as you find you’ve moved a long way down the beach… Loved playing like children, but you do have to be wary! It felt very pampered to be called out the last time as our chocolate milkshakes had just arrived!

In this scene the woman in the front has lunch in her right hand for her and her husband (to her right) and has a rolled blanket on her head for them to sit on. Husband is a farmer who has a cow by his side

The dolphins liked it too, I saw them go one way, then back, then in the first direction again. I guess they know what the fishing boats know! I’d had to nip down to the Dutch couple to ask if they’d seen them, they hadn’t so were thrilled to be made aware!

All you see was carved from solid granite but the intricate scene depicted on the right is called Arjuna's Penance is is quite famous. I thought I'd got a better picture but it appears I haven't. Anyway, it measures 96 feet by 43 feet and depicts the descent of the river Ganges to earth in amazing detail

Having already swapped one book I picked up in desperation somewhere else, I made a bid to finish the tome that I have been reading. I’ve now got three books to last three weeks which along with the blog to write should keep me going till we get back.

A little bit further round I photographed Jackie and Mirli in front of the rock known as Krishna's Butterball. Its a huge rock, estimated to weigh about 250 tonnes that rests on a granite slope. Apparently many people have tried to move it without success. Apparently the British used seven elephants to try to move also without success

Brian has finally flipped, there is a gym here, he’s been both days, even though you have to ask them to put the AC on in advance of your visit. He says he’s enjoyed it, and he hasn’t exploded, so it’s all good.

Mirli told us we had to do this, so of course we did!

We’ve checked in for our Sri Lanka flight, so we really are approaching the end of India!

Sometimes these things have to be done!

There  are so many of the carvings from solid granite, beautifully done and all unfinished

Mirli telling us about these particular carvings (but I can't remember!)

This notice is completely clear, but it amused me. At first glance its Free Entry. It's just not what we'd say in the UK 

A yellow headed Egret for Helen/John/Richard to identify. It looks like he dipped his head into a tin of yellow paint! Edit: Helen says it's a Cattle Egret in breeding plumage. Thank you

And a nice picture of a Hoopoe in a tree

The Shore Temple, originally one of seven, but sea erosion has claimed the other six that are now beneath the waves. Apparently bits of the other six can sometimes be seen at low tides and underwater excavations have been carried out and articles recovered. In fact this one suffered some recent sea damage in 2004 when the tsunami that devastated many areas across the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day swept over here killing several people. Mirli had been showing people around here just 20 minutes before and had left before it hit. Was she lucky! The whole site now stands on a promontory into the sea and is now protected by a lot of huge rocks around the sea shore

Looking  out from the temple towards our hotel 4km along the coast there. The white and brown roofed buildings you see in the distance are restaurants facing onto the beach. The first one Rick Stein visited on his travels around India in 2017 and the Madras fish curry that he ate is now famous. Of course we had to try it too!

This has got shrines to Shiva and Vishnu and was used as a landmark for seafarers

A lion face with an opening for an oil lamp. The face is quite Chinese in design indicating their presence here. Some aspects use Roman architecture suggesting their presence too

We're staying at a very nice beach resort. We've got a fabulous room with an outdoor patio and we're a couple of minutes walk from this beach which is private for our hotel. We can actually go in the sea here, it's relatively safe, although we didn't want to go out of our depth as it was quite fierce with big waves. We had a lot of fun diving through huge breakers and jumping over others. It was a run to the sea though to avoid burning our feet on the hot sand

And  those restaurants? Well, we had to try them out. This one was Shareefs choice, Bambinos and the rooftop restaurant had a good seaview

The food was fabulous. We'd chosen some big tiger prawns and this fish, all done in a highly spiced coating which was absolutely delicious!

The view from our table in Bambinos restaurant, where we were on Wednesday and, the blue building is Santana's, where we went tonight, right on the beach. Sarah and John had been there some years previously when they'd been on an Explore trip, so we had to try it. Ironically, we didn't go to the restaurant Rick Stein went to, which is just off to the right, as it got poor reviews on Google, 3.6 out of 5. Perhaps they got complacent and let things go  

This is looking the other way from our table in Bambinos and the multicoloured railings with the blue on the right and a grey roof is Seashore Garden Beach, the place Rick Stein went to. Beyond is the Shore Temple. All this area suffered quite a bit of damage in the 2004 tsunami

Tonight's meal in Santana with a nice seaview table

And looking down from our table is Shareef waiting for us in the white car. Shore Temple is just being lit up for the evening and the beach has all the fishing boats parked up. That's all from Mamallapuram, see you in our last destination in India, Chennai, formerly Madras when it was under British rule