Mahabalipuram: The Shore Temple

These events took place Sunday, July 4th. We are in Mahabalipuram winding down a day of adventure visiting temples, shrines and oddities built by the Pavalla kings in the 7th century.


This is the Shore Temple. The pass we bought back at the Five Brothers got us in here as well. The temple is sandwiched into a park between two waterfront stallwarts: the fishing village and the tourist town.

The fishing community was on the left, tourist beach on the right. It was amusing how similar this was to our hometown versions. Vendors sold ice cream and beach balls. Kids ran around in groups, playing and screaming. There were even carnival rides. You can see the tourist beach in the background below. It might have been fun to hang out there a bit, but we were on an agenda and were actually fading a bit by this point. The sun was intense, but after Agra we had a little bit of tolerance to it built up.

So, it terms of the temple, it's the usual biggies, Shiva, Durga and Vishnu. And look at all the bulls. Is it Nandi or just an ordinary cow? Not sure. The scaffolding and such that you see is because the salt air takes a toll and they need to do repairs regularly.
Below you see where the Shivalinga was. It was switched out later with a Ganesh I believe, but I'm not clear on the reasons.
Now this temple was a nice cap to the trip, it was breezy enough and pleasantly located. We enjoyed the diversion and learning about the history and culture. It was a great trip.
But getting in and out of these places we were bombarded by touts, beggars and hawkers in a way that we never were in Bangalore. Not surprising I guess, but perhaps worth discussing next time.