Cave Temples at Pallava Period – Mamalla Style
 Photo by : AADHI ARTS in Flickr |
Mahendra’s great son and successor, Narasimhavarman I Mamalla (630-668), in addition to excavating some Mahendra style cave-temples like the Orukkal mandapam and the Kotikal mandapam described earlier, initiated a new and more ornate series of cut-in cave-temples. This was in addition to this unique invention of totally cut-out monolithic temple forms, or uimanas, the so-called rathas, and some open air bas-relief compositions of considerable size and superb quality, all confined to the great Pallava port-city of Mamallapuram of Mahabalipuram. These ornate cave-temples that Mamalla initiated were mostly completed in stage by his immediate successors for two generations, who also created a few monuments in the same style and at the same place. The outstanding development discernible in these is a fuller representation of their mandapa facades, their interior decoration and the replacement of the square massive pillars and pilasters by typical pillars with ornate bases and full capitals and all the moulded members of the ‘order’, thus making the stone copies more true to their contemporary structural originals in brick and timber.
The adhishthana, or plinth, shows all the usual mouldings as could be seen in the finished examples. The mandapa façade has a fully represented entablature, or prastara, which constitutes all the architectural parts coming over the beam and including it, as against what is seen in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. The prastara is fully finished with a flexed kapota, or an eaves-like cornice projection, decorated by horseshoe-shaped kudu arches. The prastara has also a string of miniature shrines above it, all of oblong plan, often with a barrel-vaulted roof, the sala, while in the later examples, the sala sting ends at either extremity in similar miniature shrine models of square plan with a four "sided domical roof, the kuta. The entire string constitutes what is called the hara with interconnecting lengths of cloister. The pillars generally conform to the wooden prototypes, but are taller and slenderer and have their bases often shaped into squatting lions. The tope of the shaft has the variously moulded capital members such as the malasthana, the padma bandha, the kalasa, the tadi, the kumbha, the Pali and the phalaka or abacus, the last-mentioned one omitted in some cases, and the topmost member carrying the corbel or potika, with curved profile and roll ornamentation, or taranga, with a median plain patta.
Their mandapas are often demarcated into front and rear sections by an inner row of pillars. The shrine fronts, one, three or five, are at the rear of the inner mandapa, project more into the mandapa, and have all the angas of a uimana front, namely, moulded adhishthana, pilasters, or kudya-stambhas, with capital components as detailed above and prastara with well-formed kapota and kudu decorations. The further superstructure of the uimana is not shown, as in a depiction of the interior aspect of a mandapa with the shrine behind, the upper parts of the uimana would not be visible. The prastara of the shrine front abuts on the mandapa ceiling.
There are eight such cave-temples in various stages of completion: the Koneri mandapam, the Varaha mandapam, the Mahishamardini mandapam (locally called Yamapuri mandapam), an unfinished cave-temple next to the Koneri mandapam, the Pancha-Pandava mandapam, the Adivaraha cave-temple called Paramesara Mahavaraha Vishnu-griha in its inscriptions and the Ramanuja mandapam. Of these the Varaha and Ramanuja mandapams have undivided mandapas by an inner line of pillars. The Mahishamardini mandapam is peculiar in that its principal central shrine is preceded by a square and a pillared portico projected into the larger mandapa, as in the case of the Dalavanur cave-temple. The Pancha Pandava mandapam records an attempt to cut a square central shrine with a surrounding cloister in the form of a mandapam having two rows of pillars running all round. The Varaha mandapam and the Adivaraha cave-temples have each a single shrine-cell while the Mahishamardini and the Ramanuja mandapams have three shrine-cells in them; the Koneri mandapam has five in a row behind the mandapam.
The Mamalla-style cave-temples show a marked advance over the Mahendra type in Plastic decoration also, in having a wealth of large and fine sculptures in addition to the usual dvarapala sculptures. These are often synoptic, narrating important Puranic legends. The Varaha mandapam, which is the most complete cave-temple and has been preserved in all its parts, contains bas-relief compositions of Bhu-varaha and Trivikrama inside large panels on the side walls of its mandapam. Its back wall has towed more-one on either side of the projected shrine entrance, carrying panels of Gajalakshmi and Durgaa. The front and side walls of the projected shrine front have niches with dvarpala sculptures. The manner in which the boar-head of Bhu-Varaha merges at thee neck imperceptibly with the human body is a mastepiece of art not equalled by similar representation in the Gupta and other sculptures. The central shrine is now empty, but perhaps once contained painted or stucco representation of Narasimha. Almost identical, but more artistic and graceful delineations of Gajalakshmi and Durga are reproduced in almost the same positions on the rear wall panels on either side of the projected shrine entrance in the Adivaraha cave-temples. In addition, the front wall of the projected central shrine of the Adivaraha cave-temple has three niches, each on either side of the entrance containing other sculptures. The niches flanking the entrance contain dvarapalas. The two central wider niches, one on each side have sculptures of standing Vishnu and Harihara, respectively. The extreme ones on the north and south show a Nagaraja or Adisesha in human form with the five-headed serpent-hood and a portrait sculpture in graceful tribhanga posture. The south and north walls of the mukha-mandapa contain large relief’s of stnading Brahma, and Siva as Gangadhara. Similar panels on the south and north walls of the ardha-mandapa have almost life-size royal portrait groups of the Pallva kings, Simhavishnu and Mahendra with their queems amd consorts and with label inscriptions over them indicating their identity. The main sanctum contains a modern stucco form of Varaha murti. This temple is in use for worship while others are not. The bas-relief sculptures of Durga on the south and Gajalakshme on the north side walls of the Ramanja mandapam have been totally chiselled off in later times by the Vaishnava occupants as also the three shrine fronts and their dvarapalas of this original triple-celled Siva cave-temple. The back wall of the central shrine retains traces of a Somaskanda group. The Mahishamardini cave-temple contains on the two side walls of its mandapa two of the most celebrated and famous Pallva sculptures, namely, Durga as Mahishasurmardini, mounted on a leaping lion and battling with Mahishasura and his hordes on the north, and Vishnu as Anantasay in Yoga-nidra, or contemplative sleep, on a serpent-couch on the south. Besides the beauty, grace, vigour and agility depicted in Durga, the clever synthesis of the buffalo-head and human body of the demon Mahishasura would equal only that of the Varaha form mentioned above, not to speak of the defiance and haughtiness depicted by his stance and demeanour even in the animal face. All these sculptures would thus constitute some of the earliest extant representations of the respective forms and as such valuable material for a study of the development of early iconofrapy in the south.
Recent research (by) Lockwood, Siromoney and Dayanandan-Mahabalipuram studies) has established that the dvarapalas of the Pallava cave-temples, Saivite and Vaishnavite, are really ayudapurushas, or delified personifications of the appropriate weapons of Siva (sula and parasu, i.e. trident and axe) of Vishnu (Sanka and chakra, i.e.conch and discus), which are shown on the headgear of the concerned dvarapala. Also it has been demonstrated that the original dedication of the Mahisamardini cave-temple was to Vishnu, subsequently made Saivite in the same century by the introduction of the large Somaskanda panel, on the lined wall of the shrine, in place of the original Vishnu that was perhaps a painted stucco. Appropriately enough the two dvarapalas wedged in a curious manner into the narrow spaces on either side of the shrine’s door-jamb, were afterthoughts likewise, modified for the Savite re-dedication as also the two flanking shrine-cells on either side in the trimurti pattern, Vishnu occupying the place of precedence in the central cella in the original scheme.
Though not strictly cave-temples like his Atiranachanda mandapam, other creations Rajasimha Pallva (700-728) in the series of rock-carvings found in Mahabalipuram and neighbourhood are the Yali mandapam at Saluvankuppam, a hamlet to the north of Mahabalipuram, familiarly called ‘tigercave’, and similar ornamental pavilions. These would stand apart from either group of cave-temples described above. The Yali mandapam is a small, oblong, shallow pavilion, or mandapa, excavated on the eastern face of a boulder facing the sea with its moulded adhishthana and a façade of flanking pillars, which are adorned at their bases by rearing lions or uyalas, cut over a lower platform reached by a flight of steps. The whole structure is surrounded by an arched frieze of eleven large uyala heads mistakenly called ‘tiger heads’. To the south of the pavilion, and carved on the rock face, are relief’s of two elephant fronts with howdahs over their necks, a dvajastambha in between, and horse at the south extreme. The northern face of the rock is roughly carved out into a large squatting lion-front with a small square niche cut into in its bosom, enshrining a relief panel of Mahishamardini. The Yali mandapam obviously served as resting place of the processional idols or the royalty during festivals. This, even the name of the place-Tiruveluchchiyur-found in the inscriptions, would suggest. A smaller replica of the Yali mandapam is found on the surf-beaten boulder to the south of the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. To the north of the temple is another larger rock called the Mahishamardini rock with a large lion face and Durga niche in its bosom.
In passing, mention may be made of the two celebrated open- air bas-relief compositions of large group sculptures on the face of the massive rocks in Mahabalipuram. They are Arjuna’s penance and the Govardhana-Krishna scenes. The compositions are both synoptic and narrative of the respective themes. Arjuna’s penance depicts the scene of Siva granting to Arjuna as a boon the desired weapon-pasupata-sought by the latter through the performance of a severe penance. The depiction is after the description of the scene in Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya. The Govardhana-Krishna scene depicts Krishna as holding up the hill to afford shelter to the displaced gopas and gopis with their children, cattle and other belongings, when they had to flee their homes as result of a great deluge of rain and stone brought down by the irate Indra. The depiction is quite powerful and realistic. A unique south Indian note is struck by the introduction of Krishna’s facourite gopi, Nappinnai, huddling near him in the group and distinguished from the rest of the women in the scene by her dress, stance and attendant lady. The Krishna-Nappinnai theme is speical to the earlier contemporary Tamil literature and tradition.
The adhishthana, or plinth, shows all the usual mouldings as could be seen in the finished examples. The mandapa façade has a fully represented entablature, or prastara, which constitutes all the architectural parts coming over the beam and including it, as against what is seen in the Mahendra-style cave-temples. The prastara is fully finished with a flexed kapota, or an eaves-like cornice projection, decorated by horseshoe-shaped kudu arches. The prastara has also a string of miniature shrines above it, all of oblong plan, often with a barrel-vaulted roof, the sala, while in the later examples, the sala sting ends at either extremity in similar miniature shrine models of square plan with a four "sided domical roof, the kuta. The entire string constitutes what is called the hara with interconnecting lengths of cloister. The pillars generally conform to the wooden prototypes, but are taller and slenderer and have their bases often shaped into squatting lions. The tope of the shaft has the variously moulded capital members such as the malasthana, the padma bandha, the kalasa, the tadi, the kumbha, the Pali and the phalaka or abacus, the last-mentioned one omitted in some cases, and the topmost member carrying the corbel or potika, with curved profile and roll ornamentation, or taranga, with a median plain patta.
Their mandapas are often demarcated into front and rear sections by an inner row of pillars. The shrine fronts, one, three or five, are at the rear of the inner mandapa, project more into the mandapa, and have all the angas of a uimana front, namely, moulded adhishthana, pilasters, or kudya-stambhas, with capital components as detailed above and prastara with well-formed kapota and kudu decorations. The further superstructure of the uimana is not shown, as in a depiction of the interior aspect of a mandapa with the shrine behind, the upper parts of the uimana would not be visible. The prastara of the shrine front abuts on the mandapa ceiling.
There are eight such cave-temples in various stages of completion: the Koneri mandapam, the Varaha mandapam, the Mahishamardini mandapam (locally called Yamapuri mandapam), an unfinished cave-temple next to the Koneri mandapam, the Pancha-Pandava mandapam, the Adivaraha cave-temple called Paramesara Mahavaraha Vishnu-griha in its inscriptions and the Ramanuja mandapam. Of these the Varaha and Ramanuja mandapams have undivided mandapas by an inner line of pillars. The Mahishamardini mandapam is peculiar in that its principal central shrine is preceded by a square and a pillared portico projected into the larger mandapa, as in the case of the Dalavanur cave-temple. The Pancha Pandava mandapam records an attempt to cut a square central shrine with a surrounding cloister in the form of a mandapam having two rows of pillars running all round. The Varaha mandapam and the Adivaraha cave-temples have each a single shrine-cell while the Mahishamardini and the Ramanuja mandapams have three shrine-cells in them; the Koneri mandapam has five in a row behind the mandapam.
The Mamalla-style cave-temples show a marked advance over the Mahendra type in Plastic decoration also, in having a wealth of large and fine sculptures in addition to the usual dvarapala sculptures. These are often synoptic, narrating important Puranic legends. The Varaha mandapam, which is the most complete cave-temple and has been preserved in all its parts, contains bas-relief compositions of Bhu-varaha and Trivikrama inside large panels on the side walls of its mandapam. Its back wall has towed more-one on either side of the projected shrine entrance, carrying panels of Gajalakshmi and Durgaa. The front and side walls of the projected shrine front have niches with dvarpala sculptures. The manner in which the boar-head of Bhu-Varaha merges at thee neck imperceptibly with the human body is a mastepiece of art not equalled by similar representation in the Gupta and other sculptures. The central shrine is now empty, but perhaps once contained painted or stucco representation of Narasimha. Almost identical, but more artistic and graceful delineations of Gajalakshmi and Durga are reproduced in almost the same positions on the rear wall panels on either side of the projected shrine entrance in the Adivaraha cave-temples. In addition, the front wall of the projected central shrine of the Adivaraha cave-temple has three niches, each on either side of the entrance containing other sculptures. The niches flanking the entrance contain dvarapalas. The two central wider niches, one on each side have sculptures of standing Vishnu and Harihara, respectively. The extreme ones on the north and south show a Nagaraja or Adisesha in human form with the five-headed serpent-hood and a portrait sculpture in graceful tribhanga posture. The south and north walls of the mukha-mandapa contain large relief’s of stnading Brahma, and Siva as Gangadhara. Similar panels on the south and north walls of the ardha-mandapa have almost life-size royal portrait groups of the Pallva kings, Simhavishnu and Mahendra with their queems amd consorts and with label inscriptions over them indicating their identity. The main sanctum contains a modern stucco form of Varaha murti. This temple is in use for worship while others are not. The bas-relief sculptures of Durga on the south and Gajalakshme on the north side walls of the Ramanja mandapam have been totally chiselled off in later times by the Vaishnava occupants as also the three shrine fronts and their dvarapalas of this original triple-celled Siva cave-temple. The back wall of the central shrine retains traces of a Somaskanda group. The Mahishamardini cave-temple contains on the two side walls of its mandapa two of the most celebrated and famous Pallva sculptures, namely, Durga as Mahishasurmardini, mounted on a leaping lion and battling with Mahishasura and his hordes on the north, and Vishnu as Anantasay in Yoga-nidra, or contemplative sleep, on a serpent-couch on the south. Besides the beauty, grace, vigour and agility depicted in Durga, the clever synthesis of the buffalo-head and human body of the demon Mahishasura would equal only that of the Varaha form mentioned above, not to speak of the defiance and haughtiness depicted by his stance and demeanour even in the animal face. All these sculptures would thus constitute some of the earliest extant representations of the respective forms and as such valuable material for a study of the development of early iconofrapy in the south.
Recent research (by) Lockwood, Siromoney and Dayanandan-Mahabalipuram studies) has established that the dvarapalas of the Pallava cave-temples, Saivite and Vaishnavite, are really ayudapurushas, or delified personifications of the appropriate weapons of Siva (sula and parasu, i.e. trident and axe) of Vishnu (Sanka and chakra, i.e.conch and discus), which are shown on the headgear of the concerned dvarapala. Also it has been demonstrated that the original dedication of the Mahisamardini cave-temple was to Vishnu, subsequently made Saivite in the same century by the introduction of the large Somaskanda panel, on the lined wall of the shrine, in place of the original Vishnu that was perhaps a painted stucco. Appropriately enough the two dvarapalas wedged in a curious manner into the narrow spaces on either side of the shrine’s door-jamb, were afterthoughts likewise, modified for the Savite re-dedication as also the two flanking shrine-cells on either side in the trimurti pattern, Vishnu occupying the place of precedence in the central cella in the original scheme.
Though not strictly cave-temples like his Atiranachanda mandapam, other creations Rajasimha Pallva (700-728) in the series of rock-carvings found in Mahabalipuram and neighbourhood are the Yali mandapam at Saluvankuppam, a hamlet to the north of Mahabalipuram, familiarly called ‘tigercave’, and similar ornamental pavilions. These would stand apart from either group of cave-temples described above. The Yali mandapam is a small, oblong, shallow pavilion, or mandapa, excavated on the eastern face of a boulder facing the sea with its moulded adhishthana and a façade of flanking pillars, which are adorned at their bases by rearing lions or uyalas, cut over a lower platform reached by a flight of steps. The whole structure is surrounded by an arched frieze of eleven large uyala heads mistakenly called ‘tiger heads’. To the south of the pavilion, and carved on the rock face, are relief’s of two elephant fronts with howdahs over their necks, a dvajastambha in between, and horse at the south extreme. The northern face of the rock is roughly carved out into a large squatting lion-front with a small square niche cut into in its bosom, enshrining a relief panel of Mahishamardini. The Yali mandapam obviously served as resting place of the processional idols or the royalty during festivals. This, even the name of the place-Tiruveluchchiyur-found in the inscriptions, would suggest. A smaller replica of the Yali mandapam is found on the surf-beaten boulder to the south of the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. To the north of the temple is another larger rock called the Mahishamardini rock with a large lion face and Durga niche in its bosom.
In passing, mention may be made of the two celebrated open- air bas-relief compositions of large group sculptures on the face of the massive rocks in Mahabalipuram. They are Arjuna’s penance and the Govardhana-Krishna scenes. The compositions are both synoptic and narrative of the respective themes. Arjuna’s penance depicts the scene of Siva granting to Arjuna as a boon the desired weapon-pasupata-sought by the latter through the performance of a severe penance. The depiction is after the description of the scene in Bharavi’s Kiratarjuniya. The Govardhana-Krishna scene depicts Krishna as holding up the hill to afford shelter to the displaced gopas and gopis with their children, cattle and other belongings, when they had to flee their homes as result of a great deluge of rain and stone brought down by the irate Indra. The depiction is quite powerful and realistic. A unique south Indian note is struck by the introduction of Krishna’s facourite gopi, Nappinnai, huddling near him in the group and distinguished from the rest of the women in the scene by her dress, stance and attendant lady. The Krishna-Nappinnai theme is speical to the earlier contemporary Tamil literature and tradition.
