More Mahabalipuram

There are a lot of pictures of Mahabalipuram's temples and sculptures on the Net, and mine don't add anything, but here are a couple anyway. Most of the ruins are not built but carved out of the huge rocks in the area.

One of the charms of the sculptures is the animals, which look very natural -- like this lovely monkey family:

and this elephant, with baby elephants underneath, from the large rock-carving which is now called Arjuna's Penance :

Here's a vertical slice of the same carving -- you can see the elephant on the right:

This carving includes gods, such as the serpent deities in the natural vertical cleft which is said to represent the Ganges River; humans; and animals -- all the beings of the universe.

These sculptors had a sense of humour: you can see the meditating man in the upper left, echoed by a meditating cat, with mouse worshippers, beneath the elephant's tusks. (There's a close-up of the cat here.)

It's a large sculpture, and includes more animals, such as a graceful deer; and more gods, and more humans. It's stunning to look at.

One of the haunting things about this place is that it was never finished -- you see so many rocks where preliminary chisel marks were made, and where somebody put his chisel down one day and never came back.