Mahabalipuram
Shore Temple (India)
Built on the shores of the Bay of Bengal in
Mahabalipuram (India) in the early 8th century by the Pallava King Rajasimha.
The shore temple actually consists of 2 back to back shrines, one facing the
east (the Bay), and the smaller one facing west.
It stands on the edge of the Bay of Bengal. At high
tide, the waves sweep into its compounds. The walls and their sculptures have
been battered and eroded by the winds and waves for thirteen hundred years. Yet
they stand intact.
Mahabalipuram was a flourishing sea port in the
times of Periplus and Ptolemy (140 AD). There is an old legend here that
originally there were seven temples; of these, six have been swallowed by the
sea and only one temple -the Shore Temple- remained. There are evidences of
submerged structures under the waves and sporadic excavations are going on, but
it is too early to say whether there really was a glorious city and six more
temples which now lie submerged under the waves off the coast off
Mahabalipuram.
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