Mystic Mahabalipuram

Day 2

It’s been a long time since I came back from my Chennai trip and gotten into my usual routine of going to college and blah blah.

So it’s going to be a lot of umm’s that set me thinking back here while I write this

We woke up early and left Chrompet by 8 am or so.

Reached Mahabalipuram at around 11 and had some plot visits to complete.

After that moving along the elegant East Coast Road, we reached the Pancha Ratham Rock Carvings there.

Again here, phoren tourists all around us walked dazed looking at the fantastic sculpture of the period of the Pallavas.

The carvings consisted of 5-6 single rocks carved out with pain staking detail to depict elephants and beautiful Pancha rathams. We couldn’t get enough of the place and strolled around and went inside the caves and sat admiring the sculpture.

An interesting sculpt was that of Ardhanareeshwara ,integration of the male and female bodies representing Shiva and Uma.

Meaning Of Ardhanareeshwara (androgynous)

"The Atma is Purusha (Brahman) and the body is Prakriti (Feminine Principle) in human life. So. every human being is androgynous (Ardhareeshwara). The Principle of Shiva (Shiva-twa) teaches the unity of Prakriti and Purusha. This is the true meaning of Shivaratri. Forgetting this principle, man considers this physical body to be made up of merely blood, flesh and fecal matter. No doubt, it has these constituents, but one should not forget the fact that divinity permeates this body." Sai Baba. SS, 3/99, p. 72.

Read on ...

• The religious centre of Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) was founded by a 7th-century- Pallava king, Narasimhavarman, also called Mamalla ("great wrestler"), for whom the town was named.

• Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots) - five monolithic pyramidal structures named after the PandavasArjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva) and Draupadi. An interesting aspect of the rathas is that, despite their sizes they are not assembled — each of these is carved from one single large piece of stone.

• Most of the monuments are of Pallava dynasty except the original Sthalasayana Perumal temple was constructed in Vijaynagar times and the Mandapas belong to Chola days.

We came out of the temples and entered the shopping area. It was filled with shops that stacked the same kind of things, shell jewellery, shell show pieces, intricate mirrors with shells and the like. I was happy since I could finally get to shop !
My loot included bags, gifts for friends’ back home, jewellery and the like. I bought a very intricate mirror with sea-shells stuck all around it. Haven’t yet hung it up anywhere there .Oh yes, Vanity, No apologies :P

Also visited the Temple at Mahabalipuram and Lord Ranganathaswamy was in a very unique manner waving out his hand to the devotees and calling them .he is called STHALASAYANA PERUMAL here.

From there, we left to Pondy bazaar.

A nice jam welcomed us at the entrance, near Krishna Sweets Headquarters and we finally decided to walk the 100 m instead of simply waiting in the car for the traffic to clear out.
The entire stretch of Pondy Bazaar mesmerized me, Of course we have our own Commercial street, Brigade Road and MG Road but it always feels good to step into the shopping hub of any city .I visited T nagar the last time I was at Chennai and I liked that place too.

And for the good one hour we spent at Pondy Bazaar, I gazed at Naidu hall and the other multi branded outlets but didn’t step into them: P
I bought various little things here, a ring holder in plaster of paris, jhumkis in black metal, Bangles, all well bargained.
Finally I bought a joothi –yeah those flat shoes, the ones lucknow is known for.
The price quoted was 275, I heard it as 75 and was overjoyed; I tried them on and was telling amma wat a great deal it is when the guy screamed out “275 sister! “And I came crashing down, no way; I argued .I said 200 and the guy instantly packed it up. I felt foolish and my relative also felt that my bargaining skills were at an all time low that day. Dejected yet happy with my purchases, we went back home.

Now I had to pack up all our huge mass into our tiny 2 kits, I spent a good 45 minutes and carefully packed up everything. The mirror had to be taken care of since it was really fragile and I even managed to bring back my kite in one piece :- )

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