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Mahabalipuram Rathas
Mahabalipuram is a temple (mandir) town that's located along the Coromandel
Coast 55 kilometers off Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu. The place is known
for its Ratha temples that are part of the famous shore temple (mandir) complex.
The Pallava king Narasimha built the magnificent 'Ratha' cave temples of
Mahabalipuram. The good thing about the sculptural art of the rock-minimize
temples tells about the architectural contribution of the erstwhile Pallava
rulers. These 7th century temples are regarded the pioneer of an entirely
revolutionary style of structure that came to be generally known as Dravidian
architecture style.
These 'Ratha' temples of Mahabalipuram are commonly called the Pancha Pandava
Ratha. These temples are considered pioneer of the Dravidian monolith era and
mark the point of transition between the sooner custom of rock-carved temples
and the later custom of freestanding stone structures. There are actually eight
Rathas at Mahabalipuram out of which five are named after the 5 Pandavas of
Mahabharata and one after Draupadi. The five rathas that may be seen are
Dharmaraja Ratha, Bhima Ratha, Arjuna Ratha, Draupadi Ratha and Nakula Sahadev
Ratha.
The interesting options amongst all these Ratha temples are the fact that all of
them are monolith and are primarily based on the Buddhist Viharas and Chaityas.
The biggest and the tiniest among them are three-storied Dharmaraja Ratha and
one-storied Draupadi Ratha respectively. The magnificent approach by which these
Monolithic Cave Temples were excavated by scooping out the scarp of the hill
from entrance to back is an actual treat for the eyes.
Apart from the well-known Rathas, there are other magnificent temples in
Mahabalipuram too. These temples are renowned for their Mandapas (cave
sanctuaries). A Mandapa is an open pavilion or a hall with cells in the again
wall and is lower out of a single piece of rock. The enormous open-air aid such
because the well-known 'Descent of the Ganges' and the temple (mandir) of Rivage,
with thousands of sculptures to the glory of Shiva, are essentially the most
attractive. Each of those temples entice loads of crowd every year.
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