Ancient Shore Temple Mamallapuram

Some time back I wrote two posts on Shore Temple Mamallapuram, one was a quiz to identify the ancient temple of Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram, on the East cost highway outside of Chennai.  In both the pictures I showed the top or the Shikhara of the temple with birds playing there at the lofty heights. This temple is one of the oldest in India and a great example of the maritime power and architecture of Pallava empire. These Pallava kings had trade, culture and military interactions with countries as far as Rome, China, Cambodia and many other ancient civilizations. So I was very pained to see this picture of vandalism of the shore temple Mamallapuram by some members of a political party.

I do  not understand politics nor is desi Traveler a blog about politics, but one thing I know there are many ways of protesting or showing your political muscle, but vandalizing our ancient heritage is not one of them. I wonder if this is what our political parties do to Unesco World Heritage site, what will they do to other less well known monuments? May be raze them to ground and build a multiplex?

I  have promised earlier that I will write a more detailed post about the Shore temple Mahabalipuram, but after this act of vandalism, I thought of just publishing more beautiful pictures of the temple here on desi Traveler, so that I can  highlight what a beautiful cultural heritage was vandalized and we need to stop these activities with immediate effect.

How To Reach Shore Temple Mahabalipuram:  The best way to reach Shore Temple Mamallapuram is to take East Cost Highway from Chennai, you can take a bus or your car as the highway is very good though congested near the city. You can follow this Google map link to the Mahabalipuram shore temple, open all seven days.

You need to buy a combo ticket that gives you entrance to all monuments in the Mahabalipuram complex the Pancha Rathas, Tiger Cave, Krishna’s butter ball etc. You can also visit it if you are returning from Pondicherry to take a flight or train from Chennai, like I did.

I hope you have liked the pictures of the Shore Temple Mahabalipuram and are equally pained at the vandalism of the temple as I am. Please note this is not a post about religious sentiments but about respecting  our national heritage that is not the precinct of any political party. Please sign this petition here to ASI to take action against this vandalism and protect the Shore Temple Mahabalipuram.

You can check some of the other posts about Temples of India here:  Sacred Center Of Hampi, Ganesha Temple Of Ranthambore Fort, Visa God Temple of Chilkur Balaji, Ranganath Swami Temple of Nanakramguda, Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple .

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