PALLAVA ARCHITECTURE
In the south; the Pallavas bridge the transition from rock architecture to structural stone temples. The credit for having initiated the rockarchitecture in the Pallava country must be given to the royal artist Mahendravarman I. Some of his architectural works are the cave temples on the hill at Mandagappattu, the five-celled cave temple at Pallavaram near Madras, the four cave temples at Mamandur and the Siva temple at Sivamangalam. However, the upper rock-cut cave at Tiruchirapalli is by far the best of Mahendra's creations. Besides these cave temples, dedicated to Siva, a few Vishnu cave temples were also excavated by him, the most important ones being the Mahendravishnugrlha at Mahendravadi and the Ranganatha temple at Srigavaram.
The architecture of the post-Mahendra period is found in the port town of Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram) at the mouth of the Palar river. The monuments at Mamallapuram can be grouped into (a) cut-in cave temples, (b) cut-out monolithic temples, and (c) structural temples. Famous among these temples are the Pancha Pandava cave temples and the Pancha Pandava rathas. 'The Descent of the Ganga' or ' Arjuna's Penance' are virtually classical poems in stone. These were built in the seventh century by Narasimhavarman. Mamallapuram is also famous for the Shore Temple, which was a structural construction put up independently and not hewn out of any rock. Narasimhavarman II constructed the Kailasanath temple (eighth century) at Kanchipuram.
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