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Thursday, June 15, 2006
I visited
chennai, kanchi last weeekend. cudnt meet Bach there. But for sure i
was interested in seeing Mahabalipuram which got(and still getting) so
much of publicity through Bach's blog.
I didnt find anything beautiful or exotic
architecture there. The architecture is very crude( not that it is
eroded by sea). the sculptures are very rustic and lack detroitness. it
seems as if it were made by some ametures or carving school students.
or sopmetimes you feel the whole project was left unfinished due to
lack of proper funds! we hired a guide there. he showed us a place
which is supposed to be
'rathas' of pancha pandavas and draupadi. the chariots dont have
wheel/s!
One image carved in releif is of Vamana avatar, but there is no Bali
chakravathy at his feet. actually you can find many such minor
errors(if i can call them). it is said that this place wasnt famous few
decades ago. hardly anyone used to visit them. it is the TN govt(and a
few movies) which
gave some upliftment to this place. anyways it is a nice ride along the
beach side road which is called East Coast Road, relatively nearer to
many employees of software companies which are situated on the way from
Chennai to M'Puram.
and joke of the day: Rakhi Sawant has filed a complaint against Mika singh for kissing her at a funtion!!
(A carving at M'Puram)
Posted at 04:52 pm by kaushik
 | | | kaushik
June 19, 2006 03:12 PM PDT
i havent seen ajantha caves. i guess they are more famous for their paintings than sculpture. yes, 1000 years is very old compared to newer versions like belur. but yet, what is say is the crudeness in the sculpture is evident. in temples of good architecture what is you see is not an embossed figure, but a whole sculpture, which are rare in m'puram. and the 'vamana' which i spoke is near ganesh chariot. have a look at at when you visit next time. But in my view, Mpuram is not worth a second visit. | |
| | | bachodi
June 16, 2006 10:40 AM PDT
Hi.
I don’t have answers to some of your questions, but certainly I do have for most of them.
The lone surviving temple standing on beach IS and being eroded by salt wind, and mist. There is no question about it. Now every year temple walls get chemical treatments, for their blisters.
Yes, all other are crude, and looks primitive. But compared to what? Are you comparing them with belur, hampi or badami ? Or anything else will have a time factor there. The structures there are at least 1000 years older than any of the things I mentioned above.
About "Vamana”, there must be some other kind of mythology or version. You can observe them in the sculptures. Some of them are with pot belly and big mush. The architecture is completely different.
Some of the things you seem to be missing are. Remainings of a port and its light house. And cave temples. They carved single rock and everything is single structure, no joints. If at all you are comparing, compare it with Ajanta... Nothing else
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