Panchapandava Cave Temple, Mamallapuram
Panchapandava Cave Temple (also known as Pancha Pandava
Temples and Mandapa of the Five Pandavas) is a monument at Mahabalipuram, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, in the Kancheepuram district of
the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The mandapa (rock sanctuary) is part of the Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram.
It is the largest cave temple in Mahabalipuram. It is an
example of Indian rock-cut architecture dating from the late 7th century. The temple is one of the
finest testimonials to the ancient Vishwakarma Sthapathis, of
rock-cut cave architecture, out of many such caves also called mandapas. Part of the Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram, the temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as inscribed in 1984 under criteria i, ii, iii and iv.
Geography
The Panchapandava Mandapa or Pancha Pandava Cave Temple is near
the open-air bas-relief of Arjuna’s Penance,
in Mahabalipuram town. It is situated on the top of a hill range along
with other caves in Mahabalipuram, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal of the Indian Ocean. Now in the Kanchipuram district,
it is approximately 58 kilometers (36 mi) from Chennai city (previously, Madras)
and about 20 miles (32 km) from Chengalpet.
History
The columns of the verandah, which have lion bases, are a typical
style of Pallava architecture. From the architectural features carved in the
cave it is conjectured that this style could be assigned to Narasimhavarman I
Mamalla period to Narasimhavarman II Rajasimha during the mid-7th
century. It is one of the ten important cave temples created by the
Pallavas in Mahabalipuram.
Layout
The cave temple is unfinished. The entrance is east facing. The
temple has the longest cavern, 50 feet (15 m) long, among Mahabalipuram Cave
Temples. The length of the opening is
indicative of creating a circumambulatory passage within the cave to go round the main shrine.
Architecture
The entrance to the cave has columns resting on seated lions,
which is a typical Pallava style of rock-cut architecture. There are six
lion based pillars on the front façade of the cave, apart from two pilasters at
both ends abutting the rock. As compared to other caves there is an improvement
in the layout and the architectural elements that have been carved in the cave.
One is the circumambulatory passage around regular structural
temples in South India and the other
feature is provision of brackets with lion caryatids over the pillars forming the facade; each caryatid consists
of three lions one facing to the front and the other two facing to the sides
without a lion on the backside. The brackets above the capitals of the
pillars have decorations of griffins with human riders also, in addition to the lions. The
pillars and pilasters with Yyala base of the
pillars and Pilasters are cut out over a square pithabass plate.
Within the cave, there is long chamber with a second row of four
pillars and two pilasters. To the back of this second veranda there is small
chamber cut in an octagonal shape flanked by two niches; it is inferred from
this that the intended purpose was to carve this chamber to a square plan and
making a passage behind it the for circumambulation.
Only a small chamber has been carved at the centre, which has
remained attached to the main rock. At the entrance, the curved cornice has a series of shrines with the four central shrines
projecting out. The vaulted roofs of the shrines are carved
with kudu horseshoe-arch dormer-like projections and each shrine houses another smaller shrine.
The niche below the kudu has a carved deity. Ferocious looking lions
are also carved.
There are two fresco wall panels cut on one face of this cave; one is of
Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhana hill to protect the cows and the gopis from the rains and floods created due to the wrath of Indra, which is named Govardhanadhara, and the other fresco is
also of Krishna known as Krishnaduddhadhari.
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