25 February
Susindar had a major day of sightseeing planned when he came
by my hotel. We drove south 50 kilometers to the ancient site of Mamallapuram, a
marvelous complex of stone temples and carvings built by the Pallava Kingdom
around the 7th and 8th centuries. After finding a ticket counter, I paid Rs. 550
for me and much less for Susindar. He hired an auto (Rs. 500) so that we could
quickly move from site to site without having to wait for transport or walk
unnecessarily under the hot sun. We started with the Five Rathas, stone temples
each carved from a single block of stone. They had literally been lost to the
sands of time until the British excavated them 200 years ago. Life-size stone
statues of an elephant and a lion stand here too.
Arjuna’s Penance is a
massive relief carved on two boulders that depicts Arjuna—hero of the
Mahabharata—along with Shiva, celestial beings, nagas (snake beings), dwarves, a
herd of elephants, and scenes of everyday life. We also visited a series of
temples, cave temples, and the precariously perched boulder “Krishna’s
Butterball.” There’s a lighthouse perched atop a rock hill and I would have
liked to climb to its top, but a long line on this busy Saturday convinced us
not to.
The shore temple looks a bit worn but has survived countless
storms from the nearby sea over the centuries. The two ornate towers each have a
tiny chamber with reliefs of Shiva and Parvati; the shorter tower also has a
damaged lingam.
Lastly we took in a sculpture museum in town, and
although housed in a colorful building, hardly any of the wooden and stone
sculptures inside had labels. Before getting back on the East Coast Road (ECR)
we stopped for a South Indian thali at Adayar Ananda Bhavan (A2B), a large and
busy vegetarian place where the efficient staff soon delivered our food.
We drove 23 kilometers north, then turned off to visit Dakshina Chitra Heritage
Museum https://www.dakshinachitra.net/
which offers a group of 18 traditional houses of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka,
and Andhra Pradesh along with extensive exhibitions of South Indian crafts. The
Brahmin House reminded Susindar of his grandfather’s home in Chidambaram. Over
at an outdoor theater a performance of Kathakali dance from Kerala was getting
underway with songs by a woman, then appearances by three dancers in their
super-elaborate make-up and costumes. One could have spent most of a day at the
museum, but the afternoon was getting late and we headed back to Chennai. I
would like to return to on a future India visit. Admission cost me Rs. 350 and
half that for Susindar. There are two prices for photo permits depending on size
of camera, but luckily I got away with the lower rate of Rs. 50!
Heavy
traffic on the 26-kilometer drive back to Chennai made for slow travel, but
Susindar confidently handled the driving. From my hotel I walked to Eatalica and
had a veggie steak hamburger, mint-lime soda, and a walnut brownie topped with
vanilla ice cream—similar to the dinner here yesterday.