FilmIndia (May-Dec 1938)

7 PAGODAS By: Dr. PATHY. Along the Coromandel Coast where the blue waves of the Bay of Bengal end in ripples and foam cn white sands that fringe the south eastern part of the Indian Peninsula, thirty miles south of Madras, a modern lighthouse warns passing ships of submerged ruins of rock temples. A mile or so away from this lighthouse s.ands the Shore Temple of Mahabalipuram. For twelve centuries its rock walls have withstood the fury of the restless breakers that dash against them night and day. A powerful line of kings the Pallavas ruled in Southern India between the third and eighth centuries. Their capital was at Kanchi, otherwise known as Conjeevaram. During the period of their glory the Pallavas raised exquisite rock-hewn temples, in the words of Vincent A. Smith, "imperishable monuments which constitute their best claim to remembrance. Many of these can still be seen in some parts of the Madras Presidency; but some of the best and earliest known specimens are in and around the town of Mahabalipuram also known as Seven Pagodas. Small wonder that on finishing my newsreel coverage of the Juggernaut Festival at Kanchi I headed straight for Seven Pagodas ac companied by my two assistants and with all my cine equipment. Up to Pakshitirtam — 'the holy city of sacred birds' where hundreds of pilgrims flock almost every day to the temple on the hill to see the two 'sacred' kites fed from the hands of a Brahmin priests — our question of transport was solved by the local bus service, but from here we hired two jutkas, horse carts on two wheels common in the South, to get to Mahabalipuram. On the road we passed an old man running with a spear in one hand and a mail bag in the other. The Indian 'dak'! We jumped out of our jutkas and filmed in both 'long-shots' and 'close-ups' this aged village courier. In photographic parlance he was a 'typeshot'. I sometimes wonder what excuse the courier gave to the village folk for the late arrival of their mail! An hour later we ferried across the Buckingham Canal which divides Mahabalipuram from the mainland. On landing we went straight to the monolithic 'rathas' (chariots) which according to archaeological authorities are the only ones of their kind in India. Amidst pines that swayed in the breeze, this group of five temples, each one exquisitely hewn out of a single rock. A rock-hewn temple — an exquisite specimen of Pallava Temple. The "Butter Ball" of Krishna — a solitary boulder. presented a very picturesque scene. A composite 'shot' of the five rathas, medium 'shots' of each one of them, silhouette 'shots' of their tapering towers against the blue South Indian skies. .. .more than two hundred feet of film was exposed. The colossal stone elephant, the lion, and Nandi, the bull, that stand close by the raths, each one of them cut from a single rock the footage indicator on the camera read three hundred feet. Our next monument was quite some distance from the raths as we had to walk over a mile before we reached the 'bas relief in a huge boulder. This bas relief represents the penance of Arjuna. In spite of all that has been written on it, hesitatingly confess that I was not very much impressed by it. The rock-hewn cave temple nearby kept me gazing for quite a while. It was the first one I ever saw. The pillars, the carvings on its walls, in short, a whole gallery of artistic work hewn out of a single rock! No wonder the Pallava style in architecture has earned the admiration of well-known ?rchaeologists. Again the motor of my Eyemo hummed, the footage indicator passed the mark of four hundred feet. 71