The Five Rathas. Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Mahabalipuram, 50km south of Chennai, was the major seaport of the ancient Pallava kingdom based at Kanchipuram. We spent a morning exploring the temples, caves and rock carvings around it. The area was an important port town during India’s early history and developed as a key center for artistic activity under the patronage of the Pallava rulers. Nrasimhavarman I, who took the epithet Mamalla (meaning “great warrior”), ruled for about 38 years beginning in 630 C.E. and sponsored a large number of rock-cut monuments at Mamallapuram, including cave shrines, monolithic temples, and large sculptures carved out of boulders. While the Pallava kings primarily worshipped the god Shiva, they also supported the creation of temples dedicated to other Hindu gods and goddesses and to other religious traditions such as . The Pallava rulers were particularly inspired by the growing personal devotional movement known as bhakti, in which worshippers approach the divine as a cherished child or loved one.

The Five Rathas are each carved from one stone. Each of these fine 7th-century temples was dedicated to a Hindu god and is now named after one or more of the Pandavas, the five hero-brothers of the epic Mahabharata, or their common wife, Draupadi. The rathas were hidden in the sand until excavated by the British 200 years ago. Ratha is Sanskrit for 'chariot', and may refer to the temples' form or to their function as vehicles for the gods. It's thought that they didn't originally serve as places of worship, but as architectural models.