A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.67

c21.67

There are all together ten maṇḍapas of the Mahāmalla style on various sites on the main hill at Māmallapuram. All of them exhibit much progress from the simple style of the Mahendra caves though they still retain more or less the same general character and proportions as before. None of them is a large structure. Generally speaking the dimensions are: façade, 25 feet wide, 15-20 feet high, depth (including cella) 25 feet; pillars, 9 feet high, sides 1-2 feet at widest; cellas, rectangular, each side 5-10 feet. The pillars are the main features. The roll cornice above them in front is decorated with kūḍus. Above the cornice is a parapet formed of miniature shrines alternately long and short. In the interior, pilasters and mouldings on the walls supply a suitable frame for the sculptural figures of mythological subjects. Some of the more developed pillars, like those on the exterior of the Mahishāsura maṇḍapa and in the façade of the Varāha maṇḍapa, look singularly graceful. But the two inner columns of the former, both lion pillars, are the best of the whole lot. The fluting and bands of their shafts, the graceful necking (taḍi), the beautiful ‘melon’ capitals (*kumbha*) and the lotus form (*idaḷ*) above, with the wide abacus (*palagai*), combine very well to produce the typical Pallava ‘order’. Notable among the sculptures are the magnificent reliefs of the Varāha and Vāmana *avatāras*, of Sūrya, Durgā and Gaja-lakshmī, and two fine groups of royal figures representing Simhavishnu and Mahendravarman with their queens, all in the Varāha cave. The vivid dramatic effect and the sureness in the groups of figures characteristic of these sculptures marks other reliefs also, such as the sleep of Vishnu on the serpent Ananta, and the battle of Durgā with the buffalo demon Mahisha, both in the Mahisha *maṇḍapa*, and Krishna raising the Govardhana in the Pañca Pāṇḍava *maṇḍapa*.