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    The Life of Mahabalipuram: Pulsing Stories Trapped in Stone
    The Life of Mahabalipuram: Pulsing Stories Trapped in Stone
    The Life of Mahabalipuram: Pulsing Stories Trapped in Stone
    Ebook101 pages48 minutes

    The Life of Mahabalipuram: Pulsing Stories Trapped in Stone

    By Apoorva Malarvannan

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    About this ebook

    Mahabalipuram is an Indian historical landmark, vastly important to Tamilian culture. Yet it has largely been forgotten by the long arch of history. This book serves to uncover and untangle the many fascinating narratives of the people and art that have populated that little town by the sea, both past and present.

    What results is an engaging look at a little-known piece of world history, that illuminates a passion that runs deep in the very foundation of the city. The rulers of Mahabalipuram were erudite patrons of the arts, but also formidable warriors. The sculptors of then and now were brimming with passion and skill for their extraordinarily detailed and spiritual art. What's most striking about Mahabalipuram's many players through the centuries is the life they've poured into that city. It's a vitality that deserves to be heard.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherApoorva Malarvannan
    Release dateSep 21, 2014
    ISBN9781310757860
    The Life of Mahabalipuram: Pulsing Stories Trapped in Stone
    Author

    Apoorva Malarvannan

    Apoorva Malarvannan is a high school senior from the Minnesota metro area. She has won national and regional awards for her writing, including a Silver Medal from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She is one of the senior editors for her school’s literary arts magazine, which has been nationally recognized for many years. In her free time, she enjoys writing, speaking, reading, and watching movies. She lives in the suburbs with her parents and two sisters. She blogs about life at www.outrospects.com. This is her first book, which draws on her Indian roots.

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    • 1/5
      Dear Athour,
      It was very interesting to read about this book. The words are very powerful meaning also very attractive to read this. Please continue to write more and more about Mahabalipuram . Tamil people's can understand the story the way of you writing.
      Thanks
      Mrs Somasundaram (Malar)


    Book preview

    The Life of Mahabalipuram - Apoorva Malarvannan

    Introduction

    From the outside, Mahabalipuram appears to be a quiet town about miles south of the South Indian center of Chennai. However, even a cursory glance into its thin, crowded streets indicates that something about this town is a little different, whether it’s the unusual amount of sculpture shops or the looming sandblasted structures just behind the town itself. It is soaked in dust, sweat, and history. It is not a town you simply stumble upon while driving through lorry-laden highways; you have to make a choice to find that history for yourself.

    Initially, I didn’t make that choice for myself. While visiting my family in 2012, my uncle insisted that we make the hour-and-a-half drive down to Mahabalipuram. I grudgingly acquiesced, not wanting to spend hours walking under a heat that radiated into my every pore.

    We first arrived at Shore Temple, a three-shrine structural stone temple with an immense amount of detail carved into its walls. As the guide wove the history of the place, despite my stubborn intentions, I was intrigued. We ventured on to the Five Rathas (Five Chariots), and I was amazed by the level of detail these monoliths held. I took far too many pictures of weathered granite, and left somewhat reluctantly when my little sister started crying from the sweat that underlaid her hair.

    A few hours later, when my parents and uncle and aunt returned, they looked tired, but their eyes were bright. My parents told me about both technological and historical marvels that the Pallavas, the ruling dynasty responsible for Mahabalipuram’s creation, and my interest was even further piqued. However, bubbling below was a dull confusion. 2012 was the first I heard of Mahabalipuram, or even the Pallava dynasty. When I returned home, I turned to Google for more information. There was more information than I expected, sprawling across the Internet. While it gave me a lot of interesting information, the big question remained unanswered.

    It would be well over another year before I realized why I didn’t know about that little town nestled against the sea. I was sitting in AP European History, listening to a lecture on Renaissance architecture. It was fascinating and beautiful to listen to and watch; by the time I observed pictures of gorgeous ivory columns supporting massive, intricate domes, Mahabalipuram was but a forgotten thought stored in the recesses of my mind. However, after the lecture, I remembered the granite sculptures of that little town, and found that the work of the Pallavas was comparable, if not even surpassing that of the work of the Renaissance greats. Whereas we are inundated with the knowledge of the architecture and sculptures of the Renaissance to the point that their creators are household names all over the world, the architecture and sculptures of Mahabalipuram are like signs of faith: there only if you choose to see.

    Eventually, I came to the conclusion that there’s one primary reason why this is the case: the Eurocentrism of world history.

    For centuries, the center of civilization was Europe, which immediately made the history of Europe appear more important than Asian, African, and South American history. Furthermore, European history is based on primary, written sources, while Asian, African, and South American history, for many centuries, was based on oral tradition, making it more difficult to be verified, and thus seen as less important. Throw in the fact that Europe controlled almost the entire world from the 16th century through the end of World War II, and it’s a wonder that we’ve even begun to parse and untangle the misconception that European history equals world history.

    Only recently has the West begun to understand the sheer amount and complexity of ancient technology, art, and trade that non-Western civilizations were capable of creating. However, knowledge of non-Western civilizations continues to be limited in availability to Western citizens.

    As the months of 2013 waned, an idea began to percolate in my head. How could I, in my own way, bring this concept to light? I wondered if I should make a documentary about Mahabalipuram, or even India in general, but then I realized one of those bizarrely

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