Pancha Rathas

Pancha Rathas an example of monolith Indian rock-cut architecture dating from the late 7th century located at Mamallapuram, a tiny village south of Madras in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The village was a busy port during the 7th and 8th century reign of the Pallava dynasty. The site is famous for the rock-cut caves and the sculptured rock that line a granite hill, including one depicting Arjuna's Penance. It has been classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [cite web
url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/249/
title=Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram
publisher=World Heritage
accessdate=2007-02-08]

The Pancha Rathas shrines were carved during the reign of King Mahendravarman I and his son Narasimhavarman I. Each temple is a monolith, carved whole from a rock outcropping of pink granite. The five monolithic pyramidal structured shrines are named after the Pandavas (Arjuna, Bhima, Yudhishtra, Nakula and Sahadeva) and Draupadi. As noted, each shrine is not assembled from cut rock but carved from one single large piece of stone. It is likely their original design traces back to wood constructions. [cite web
url=http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/india/mamallapuram/mam01.html
title=Pancha Rathas
publisher=
accessdate=2007-02-08]

ee also

*Arjuna's Penance
*Varaha Cave Temple
*Shore Temple
*Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram

Notes

External links

* [http://asi.nic.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/10.htm Group of Monuments Mahabalipuram (1984), Tamil Nadu]
* [http://www.tamilnation.org/culture/architecture/temple.htm Dravidian Temple Architecture]