Saturday, November 28, 2009

PALLAVA ARCHITECTURE

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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