हिंदीOn this day
Photo: Ms Sarah Welch · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ruler

Mahendravarman I

Pallava king, cave-temple builder, playwright

Reigned c. 600–630 CE

Mahendravarman I of Kanchi cut the first rock temples of the Tamil country and wrote a Sanskrit farce that still plays well. Tamil Shaiva tradition holds that Appar turned him from Jainism to the worship of Shiva.

01Without brick, timber, metal or mortar

Until his reign Tamil temples were built of perishable stuff. At Mandagapattu near Villupuram, Mahendravarman had a hall cut into a granite boulder and an inscription placed there: this temple, made without brick, without timber, without metal and without mortar, was caused to be made by King Vichitrachitta for Brahma, Ishvara and Vishnu. The three cells inside still face you. Cave temples followed at Mamandur, Dalavanur, Siyamangalam and on the Rock Fort at Tiruchirappalli, the beginning of the line that led to Mamallapuram and Thanjavur.

02The drunken games

His one-act Sanskrit farce Mattavilasa Prahasana follows a drunken Kapalika and his companion through the streets of Kanchi hunting for their lost skull-bowl, which they accuse a Buddhist monk of stealing; a Pashupata is called to judge, and a madman turns up with the bowl a dog had taken. It is still performed in the Kutiyattam tradition of Kerala. His titles show the man: Vichitrachitta, curious-minded; Chitrakarapuli, tiger among painters; Mattavilasa.

The Periya Puranam says Appar, after the king’s Jain advisers had him tortured, won Mahendravarman over to Shiva, and the king built a temple to Shiva at Tiruvadi. In war he held off Pulakeshin II, and the Kasakudi plates say he crushed his foes at Pullalur near Kanchi.

Pallava dynasty
Dynasty · c. 275–897 CEPallava dynastyThe Pallavas of Kanchi carried temple building from timber and brick into rock and then into dressed stone. Mahendravarman I cut the first rock temples of the Tamil country, Narasimhavarman I took Vatapi in 642 and filled Mamallapuram with sculpture, and Rajasimha built the Shore Temple and the Kailasanatha at Kanchi.Read →

Battles

Battle of Pullalur

The first clash of the long Chalukya–Pallava wars, fought a day’s march from Kanchipuram when Pulakeshin II came south with the army that had just turned back Harsha.

c. 618–619 CE

Places

Kanchipuram, city of learningStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Kanchipuram, city of learning

One of the seven Mokshapuris and the Pallava capital, whose ghatika, a college of Vedic learning, drew students from across the south. Shaiva, Vaishnava, Jain and Buddhist teachers all taught here.

Mandagapattu cave templeStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Mandagapattu cave temple

A hall cut into a granite boulder in a village near Villupuram, with three shrines for Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. Its inscription says it is a temple made without brick, timber, metal or mortar: the first rock-cut temple of the Tamil country.

Rock Fort, TiruchirappalliStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Rock Fort, Tiruchirappalli

An 83-metre rock over the Kaveri at Tiruchirappalli, with Shri Ganesh on the summit, the Thayumanaswamy temple halfway up, and Pallava cave shrines cut into its flanks. In the 18th century whoever held it held the Kaveri delta.

Shore Temple, MahabalipuramStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram

Rajasimha’s granite temple on the sea at the Pallava port of Mamallapuram, with two Shiva shrines and a reclining Vishnu between them. It has faced the waves for thirteen centuries.

Evidence

Kudumiyanmalai music inscriptionInscription
c. 7th century CE

Kudumiyanmalai music inscription

A large rock inscription in Grantha script that sets down musical exercises in svara notation, arranged under seven ragas.

On the timeline

  • c. 600–630 CE

    Mahendravarman I cuts temples from rockFaith

    At Mandagapattu the Pallava king boasts of a shrine to Brahma, Ishvara and Vishnu made without brick, timber, metal or mortar. He also wrote the farce Mattavilasa Prahasana.