Mamallapuram

 Before embarking on our big South Indian trip we took a little day trip to Mamallapuram. This is a place that I heard lots of good things about from Meera, Sundar, and Shailesh. I actually missed a day trip there months earlier with Meera and her friends because I was sick. I wasn’t clear on what Mamallapuram was before I got there. It was clearer when I got there, but since visiting the depth of my understanding has increased. I had an idea that there were rocks to climb, caves a beach, ancient temple ruins, some silloetting the shoreline suggesting more temples lost under the water. Sounds pretty enticing! David, myself and Shailesh made the trip on February 2^nd. I was starting to get hot! When we got there we were offered tours, and wooden sculptures as soon as we got of the bus. Shailesh almost had to pull out his “Indian card” to put the guides at bay. Shailesh is 1/4 french, and sometimes has to prove his ethnicity to avoid inflated prices for foreigners.

We had a nice breakfast in a restaurant across the street. Typical idly, dosai, and strong milk, sugar coffee.

After breakfast we headed for the “caves”. In the caves are ancient carvings (apparently some of the oldest in India!) Many of the carvings on the site depict stories of gods, but they are not IN temples. Shailesh told me that most people think that these carvings were not temple carvings, but more carvings for the sake of beauty itself. Mamallapuram was, and still is the carving capital of South India. Craftsmen have carved, and exported works in wood and stone for centuries. Temples buy the carvings for installations, temple cars ect. It is thought that the caves were used as show cases for the craftsmen rather than as places of worship. The craftsmen seem to have been developing the same way for centuries, starting as young children doing menial work for the artists to prove their skill, and then becoming artists themselves.  It’s a rather harsh system that westerners would call child labor, but there is no denying that it develops great craftsmen. I didn’t realize how amazing the little sculptures being flung in my face every second I was on the street or on the beach really were until I traveled through other parts of South India only to be offered a flood generic artisan items catered to foreigners who were looking for an “authentic” piece of Indian art. The wood carvings in Mamallapuram were not generic “authentic” Indian art. They were beautifully, detailed and refined, and also unique to the place. When I think back on it I realize that their beauty was related to the depth of tradition backing them: a town, a culture, a family that has historically been carving for almost ten thousand years!

Mamallapuram has a lot to offer any tourist. There is so much history, and aesthetic beauty in the carvings, and you can take it all in at your own place. The site is big enough to be alone, and small enough to not get lost. There is absolutely no need to deal with guides (which in my experience in India is usually more of a hindrance than a help). The caves are spread throughout a rocky forested hillside, that is easy, and fun to clamber over at your own pace. David and I enjoyed the light climbing aspect of it, although I think Shailesh was wondering why he decided to take a trip with two (in his words) “mountain goats”.  There is a big family of monkey’s that lives in and around the caves, and lots of goats and street dogs (and puppies). So if you get bored of history and art you can hang out with the monkey’s.

Mamallapuram is visited by both foreign and Indian tourists. There are 2 separate beaches (separated by a huge cliff). One is definitely geared at the Indian tourists, and the other to the foreigners. Seeing skin on the foreign beach after months in Chennai was a little shocking!, I certainly wasn’t  in the mood to strip down. The Indian beach was much more heavily populated. The roads leading to each of the 2 beaches were an interesting cultural study. The road to the foreign beach was filled with shops containing generic “authentic” artisan items that look “Indian”, and could be from anywhere in India or even any where in South east Asia for that matter. Special Indian “looking” pants that a modest Indian lady wouldn’t be caught dead in because they are tight on the ass and too short to cover the ankles, patch work with less gold, “sari’s” that again are way to small to cover EVERYTHING even on a midget ect. ect. ect. I don’t think any India would buy a single item on this strip.

 Leading to the Indian beach was an even bigger, and more congested strip of Indian tourist items: shiny plastic gods, books, jewellery. Lots and lots of shiny things and gold. Everything on this strip looked crappy to me. I don’t think any foreigner would want this stuff either!