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59 Kovelong Road, Mamallapuram, 603104, India
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Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu
Arjuna's Penance
Shore Temple
What's the best way to get to Mamallapuram from Madurai? Are there trains that run between them, or can I take a train to a transfer point and then a bus from there to Mamallapuram? Thanks for any advice!!
Best option is to take train from Madurai to Chennai (Madras) then bus to Mamallpuram which is 2 hours south. Plenty of buses allday.
earthflyer.
or you could get the bus to pondicherry then another bus to mammalupuram from there takes about 1.5 hours up the ecr road,plus you get to see pondicherry and have a nice bus ride up the coast line.
ps if you stay in pondicherry for the night i can give you the name / number of the best guest house in south india without doubt.
all the best.d
There are many trains between Madurai and Chennai and buses too compared to Pondicherry.
It will be lot easier and quicker if you reach Chennai fromMadurai.Then take a bus to Mamallapuram(Mahabalipuram).You get a bus every 10mnts to Mama'puram from Chennai.
Catch the Madurai - Chennai train (much more comfortable and safer than buses) and get off at Chengalpattu - 20 min by Bus/Car to Mallallapuram...
Carved during the Pallava dynasty (4th through 9th centuries), Arjuna's penance is the biggest single piece of rock-carving. It extends about four times the length of the section in the photograph, illustrating the descent of the river Ganga (a natural divide in the rock) from the sky.
On the way to the Five Rathas, you'll pass by dozens of sculptors chiselling away from dawn through to dusk. Mamallapuram's historical reputation for skilled carvers lies in the evidence in their small yards to you to see. They are frequently commissioned to create sculptures for new temples all over the world.
This is super structure of shore temple,the big gopuram,with complete prakara,inside the sanctum sanctorum can see Shiva lingam, on walls bas-reliefs of Shiva &Parvathi .Now old "Shiva Linga " is there.
The other small temple goupuram ,inside can see "Lord Vishnu" lying down on earth.
This temple also called the "Sthalasayana Perumal" ,is one of Abodes of Vishnu .
These temple structure inspired by following Cholas next prominet dynasty,
now its called Tamil nadu.
Whether in Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, the Americas, or India, ancient people working with stone -- be it marble or granite -- employed similar methods. To weaken a block, they dug or chipped a series of holes in it -- then made their big hit.
At Mamallapuram, the priests started on this block but for some reason didn't go any further.
I would like to explain the stone sculpture industry in Mamallapuram using John's workshop and they are basically quite the same.
Being an artist himself, John will normally create the replica of sculptures using plaster. They are normally 1/4 - 1/8 of the life size sculptures he is going to create. As explained by John Boetes, that Mamallapuram is the only place having skilled sculptors that able to work on black granite and this is very different from normal sculptors who are skilled on marble or stone sculpting.
John shared his photo albums with us and we saw some of those pictures were taken with his staffs together with the granite block with sculpture name & starting date chisel on it. Like the commercial sculptors in Mamallapuram, John's employees are slowly using more of electric powered cutting tools on excessive parts. These tools only useful in the initial stage and detailed designs or close to actual measurement portion will be strictly no usage of such electric tools for fear of over-cutting into the sculpture and ruining it.
Q & A Session:
When i asked John why must he choose black granite as the material and how long will it take to complete one of these sculptures and doesn't he worry about people stealing his completed piece since he didn't really have tight security around his completed sculptures.
John explains than black granite is much harder, more corrosive resistant and the color will not change over time as compare to marble or similar material. No special cares needed to maintain its final finishing on the sculpture make it the ideal material for his creation. He also mentioned that most of the completed sculptures take more than 30 months to complete and the cost associated to produce one is increasing as year go by because of the inflation rate in India is growing year after year.
As for the security wise, he is not too worry about it because each of them weight more than one tonne. The Mother Teresa sculpture itself weight 3.5 tonnes.
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Q: Mahabalipuram beach "Hi friends has anybody been in Mahabalipuram in September Oktober 2008 sombody said the water on the beach is comming very high..."
A: "Probably the southwest monsoon. I have the same happen in Sri Lanka during monsoon season."
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