Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.33

c23.33

Of the Rajasimha mode there are some six examples, comprising the "Shore," Isvara, and Makunda temples at Mamallapuram; a temple at Panamalai in the South Arcot district; and the temples of Kailasanatha and of Vaikuntha Perumal at Conjeevaram. Three of these are of major importance as each illustrates a stage not only in the style as a whole, but in the development of the temple formation, in much the same manner as that already shown in the contemporary art of the Chalukyans on the other side of the Peninsula (Chapter XIV) These three examples are the "Shore" temple, and the two temples at Conjeevaram. The first Pallava building to be constructed of dressed stone was the "Shore" temple, so named in modern times as it stands on the extreme foreshore of the ancient port. (Plate LXII, Figs. 2 and 3). Although the earliest known production in this technique of the Pallavas, as it dates from the last years of the seventh century, the materials of which it is composed and the manner in which they have been applied indicate a certain amount of latent experience in the art of building construction. As a proof of its excellent workmanship for over a thousand years the "Shore" temple has endured on this exposed spur of rock, buffeted for half the year by the monsoon rollers, at other times.