Pallava Architecture

In a niche in a colonnade full of lions and yalis is a shrine to the elephant-headed god Ganesh.
We pause for a moment before the remover of obstacles.
'Say, "Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha",' murmurs my guide.
'Om Ganesha Namiye,' I recite, fumbling the words.

The little cells and shrines that dot the ambulatory of the Kailasanathar would once have thrummed to the chants and mantras of ascetics and priests. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, Kailasanathar is the oldest temple in Kanchipuram, the ancient capital of the Pallavas, and its barrel vaulted gateway and pyramidal roof would serve as the prototype for the elaborate gopurams and soaring vimanams that now jostle the skyline in this city of a thousand temples.

The Pallavas were Tamil Nadu's first great dynasty, and their empire stretched across a swath of southern India. Their seaport at Mamallapuram, seventy kilometres to the east, thronged with trade from distant kingdoms: Srivijaya, Kambuja, Champa, Annam...

We head to the ancient port city in the early afternoon. My little guidebook, not normally given to poetry, describes it as a place where 'waves dance to the symphony of stones'. Among the monuments here is a shore temple (pictured above) which, like Kailasanathar, was built in the early eighth century AD by Narasimhavarman II. Facing east, towards the sea, this is where the first rays of the sun lit his domain each morning.