Nostalgic Solo Trip to Mamallapuram

It has been more than two months since my last blog. Every weekend i would think of writing about some or the other thing, but nothing pushed me to write. I got settled and comfortable in Chennai now, so no more struggles to adapt or any survival stories, and i didn't find anything else i did or happened to me interesting enough to write. I almost wrote about my visit to my college hostel, NM bakery and Leiden restaurant last month. It was a nostalgic trip and i was very excited every minute i spent there. I should have written immediately after that, but missed and got lazy later. So i needed something to push me to write. I wanted to continue writing about something or other, so i won't stop that habit and my dream of becoming writer one day might become possible. I read this phrase somewhere, "If you can't write something worth reading, then do something worth writing". So i decided i will do something or travel somewhere, so i can write about them.

 I visited Mamallapuram/Mahabalipuram once, when i was in Chennai for few months in 2008. At that time, we didn't see all the places there, not even aware of all the places there. It was just a place to visit then, with friends to hangout. I didn't have any more reason then, such as interest in Tamil/ Tamil Nadu history or architecture etc. Later, after i went to Mumbai, one day when i was extremely bored, i opened these pdfs which i had in my hard disk for long time and thought will give it a try. That pdf was Ponniyin Selvan Part1. Then there was no stopping me, i read Ponniyin Selvan, Sivagamiyin Sabadham, Parthiban Kanavu, Solaimalai Ilavarasi and Mohini Theevu without break, all Kalki's historical fiction novels. My interest in Tamil language, Tamil History grew, i wanted to visit Mamallapuram and Thanjavur temple again.

Here i will just talk about Sivagamiyin Sabadham and Mamallapuram. Sivagamiyin Sabadham is set in 6th century at the peak of Pallava dynasty, covering the rulings of Mahendravarman and his son Narasimhavarman(also called as Mamallan), after whom Mamallapuram is named. Kalki took few historical incidents and characters, and added many fictional characters and incidents and spun a great novel in this. The novel timeline was set a little before the monuments at Mamallapuram was built. But, throughout the entire novel, he showed how the city of Kanchipuram is filled with art and artists and their patrons such as King Mahendravarman and his son Narasimhavarman, and their relations with the artists and how much they cared about them, nurtured them and their vision to make arts which would lasts for generations to come. So in a way, the novel sets the expectation for you to make you visit Mamallapuram immediately after you finish it. And i felt exactly the same way. But i couldn't take off from work and come to Chennai whenever i want then, so i just moved on to next Kalki's novel.

Now its almost 8-9 years since i read Sivagamiyin Sabadham. I have decided before coming to India that i will visit Mamallapuram only after i read SS for the second time, so i can go with that feeling and excitement.  I started reading SS again last month, this time in hard copy, as i wanted to reduce the time i spend on screens and also i wanted to give the book to my mom after i complete. I couldn't read at a speed with which i read the first time, as i already knew the story. But i started reading slowly and steadily few pages per day, and every day it just reminded me how much i missed reading Kalki. He is indeed, the 'King of Narration'. The amount of detailing in book about the history of 6th century, the research he must have done in 1930s and 40s, to write this, it made me wonder again, 'how this man could've done this'. Everything came to mind again, how i was impressed with every scene he explained, the explanation of every characters mental anguish, anger, pride, responsibility, love etc. You could never hate any character in them. He gives so much respect even for a villain character.

So as i was reading slowly, my trip to Mamallapuram kept postponing every weekend. Also i was waiting to complete my scooter's first service. Last week the first service was done, but i was still in part 3 of the novel. I decided to visit this weekend for sure, even if i don't finish the novel by then. I was already indulging in the artistic Kanchipuram of 6th Century every day, so it should be the perfect time, i can even sit and read SS in Mamallapuram. What a nerdy moment that would be!!!!

I decided to visit Mamallapuram on Sunday and start from room as early as possible like 6-7. I don't remember when i last woke up at 6 on a sunday. I couldn't sleep on saturday night till 3 AM(sunday morning). I kept searching all the monuments in map to make sure i don't miss anything this time. I was checking what are all things i need to take like charger, powerbank etc. and ofcourse the SS book. When i finally slept, i didn't think i would get up at 6 in the morning, but surprisingly i did and got ready and started at 7AM. It was less traffic in the morning, so i didn't have any trouble driving and it was very good to drive that early in the ECR road. I first stopped at 'Tiget Cave' which is located 5 kms before Mamallapuram. Tiger Cave is an unfinished monument and there was also a Shiva temple near by which i think excavated recently.

There i met a foreigner who came there with an Indian. The thing i heard from people travelling solo is that you can meet and talk to a lot of strangers and make friends. I didn't actually want to make any more friends but i definitely want to talk to strangers a lot, because i'm very bad at that. So i just started a conversation with both of them and explained a little history i knew about the place. I asked if they're on their way to Mamallapuram and they said they're actually on their way to Pondicherry. So i said bye to them and started to Mamallapuram. First i had breakfast in a restaurant which i already searched based on the 4 star rating. Just a habit i picked up from USA, i think stop that in India and just eat at small restaurants. When i reached that restaurant, it was empty. Even the owner lady was surprised to see an Indian walking in and the first words from her mouth was "We don't have idli, dosa here, only omelettes, toasts and stuff". Then i had breakfast and decided to go to 'Descent of the Ganges' first. That and Krishna's butterball and many cave temples and monuments were in small mountain. This is the place i visited before in 2008. I didn't visit 'Shore Temple' and 'Pancha Rathas' before, both of which are located in two different places but within a km from this place. I started with 'Descent of the Ganges' and slowly covered all the monuments in the mountain. It seemed i missed many places see here even the last time. I walked slowly and covered all the places in my own time. Though, it was sad to see our people not treating the place with the respect and admiration it deserve.I saw people peeing behind some rocks in the mountain and i had to walk carefully not to step on human feces. It made me angry initially, but also made me realize, however bad people treat the place, those filth will be washed away in a day's rain, but these monuments will remain the same because of their rock-cut structures. Many more such sculptures made in those days might have got lost or damaged or stolen, but these monuments there cannot be moved or damaged. Whoever came up this idea of sculpting on the giant rocks in their own place, must be a genius. It made me remember SS again and how Kalki included that vision in that novel through Mahendravarman. Back to the bathroom problem, i did think people may not have a choice sometimes as not much public restrooms are there in our place and i myself faced the same problem few months back (Check my 'B(P)eing in Public' blog).  Then i noticed there was a toilet block at the back of the mountain. From the looks of it, it seemed built recently. Maybe people are still not aware of it. I only noticed after i walked around and went to backside of the mountain. So if any of you go there and had to attend nature's call, there is a bathroom there and please go there and attend.

Descent of the Ganges

                                                                                          

 
 Other than 'Descent of the Ganges', Butterball, and 7 cave temples, there are still many small structures which are amazing such as Wells, bath tubs, thrones, pallanguzhi, stairs, etc sculpted in various parts of the mountains. If you go, you should walk slowly and try to cover everything in there. After covering almost the whole mountain i thought of sitting somewhere in shadow and read SS. I sat under a tree, but not exactly under, as i didn't want crow feces in my book, a little far so that i get shadow but not under the attack from the crows. I was towards the end of part 3 then and i sat and completed the Part 3. I stopped reading then, because i wanted to save the next chapter, my favorite, the 1st chapter from Part 4 for the places i'm going to visit for the first time, either Shore temple or Pancha rathas. Before leaving that place, i went to the light house and saw the panoramic view from the top and i could see the Shore temple from the top. Even from there it stood out and looked beautiful. It was on the beach, surrounded by green lawns and Bay of Bengal behind it. So i decided next to go to Shore Temple.

When i got the ticket to Shore temple and started walking towards it, i could see how beautiful it was. That whole walk towards it, i couldn't takes my eyes off it. It just looked so beautiful. It was a small temple but again made of one whole rock, but something made it look way more beautiful than anything else there. Maybe it was the beach and the ocean behind it. People have to park the vehicles and walk some distance towards it, so traffic sound was not there. Just people murmuring and taking pictures. It was calm and relaxing and i just kept looking at it and clicking pictures. The scenes from the novel kept coming to my mind and i felt like Sculptor's(Sivagmai's father) place and his works from the novel are in front of me. Not 'like', it was actually there.

Shore Temple

And then i even started hearing the sound of sculptors sculpting statues, i.e the sound of tiny hammers hitting on rocks. For a second, i thought i was hallucinating. Then i saw few workers actually working there and hitting stones with hammer part of some maintenance work there. Then i was relieved that i haven't gone crazy yet, but still thought the coincidence was uncanny. It was like they were making background music for my mind. I wondered how that place would sounded like when thousands of sculptors were working there simultaneously. Then i thought this is the perfect time to read my favorite chapter from SS. I sat there and started reading the 1st chapter from Part 4.

Modern Sculptors

In that chapter, the sculptor was sculpting a statue alone as opposed to many students there used to work, and this again made the sound i was hearing there accurate to that chapter. And i should tell you about the 'Descent of the Ganges' which i visited before, had a description in front of it which said that there was a natural division between the rock and how the sculptor used it intelligently to use it as river Ganges flowing from heaven. It also said some say that the person who is doing the penance in the statue is Arjuna(thus its also called 'Arjuna's Penance) and some say that the person is Bagiratha. In this particular chapter which i was reading, the king praises the sculptor for doing the Bagiratha statue on the big rock and praises him for skillfully using the natural division on the rock as river Ganges flowing from heaven. And I was praising Kalki at that moment for skillfully incorporating this inside the novel.

It was little past noon and scorching heat at that time and sun was hitting on my face. People would have definitely thought i was crazy. Even more when i asked a stranger to take a picture of me reading SS with the Shore temple in background. But it was worth it. That picture is my watsapp dp now and i already got some compliments :). Pic is below.

After taking that pic, i wanted to take notes about the sculpting sound, auditory hallucination things etc so i don't forget that while i write the blog. So i sat in the lawn and took my notebook and started writing down notes. After i kept the notebook inside my bag, i saw an youngster come up to me and asking "Hi, i saw you writing down something in your notebook, if you don't mind, can i see it?". I was confused and not sure who that guy was and why he wants to see want i wrote in my notebook. I wondered if he is some security guy there and checking on me since i was sitting there reading and writing like no other tourist would do ;). I looked confused and asked "Why do you want to read my note book?". He told, "well i have never seen anyone taking notes in a place like this, so i was just curious. If you don't mind you can show me". I said ok and showed my my notebook and said "I mostly scribble there, no one else can read them". Then he asked me about my interest in the place and i told about the SS book and how i wanted to visit the place ever since i read that the first time. He said he heard about the book too, and it was in his syllabus for Group2 exams. Then i got interested too and asked about his group2 preparations etc. He finished college couple of years ago and attending training courses for group2 exams since.  He was surprised to know i work in IT and still interested in Tamil literature, history and stuff, Then we started talking for about 15-20 minutes about tamil literature, tamil history, Sangam period, hidden tamil history, Aryan domination etc etc. Finally i made my first friend through travelling solo. Then we exchanged numbers and bid adieu.

Pancha Rathas

Last stop was the Pancha Rathas. Each Ratha in them was gorgeous. No matter how many pictures you take there, you still won't have the satisfaction of a perfect picture. From all the sides it looked amazing. I wish i had lunch before i reached there, so i could have just sat there and kept watching them and may be read more SS. But i was hungry and i slept only 3 hrs, so i couldn't spend more time there. But it was stunning.

Overall Every monument in Mamallapuram was gorgeous, beautiful, stunning and whatever synonyms are there for those words. And i'm yet to complete the last part in SS, which i guess won't take much time as its my favorite portion of the book. As far as travelling solo was concerned, it wasn't bad. I might even call it good. Still i would prefer to travel with people with similar interests. But that grows very unlikely day by day. And i still have Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjur in the list. That also i visited only once during my college days. I have to read Ponniyin Selvan before i visit that place again. Considering the volume of Ponniyin Selvan is 3-4 times SS, it will take quite sometime for that. My next big travel plan is to Goa with my school friends. I want to spend time on visiting Old churches and forts rather than beaches there. Will see how it goes and let you all know about it in Jan. Till then, bye............