File:Oriental Scenery Part 5 Fig 2.jpg

English: Plate 2, part 5. Image from Oriental Scenery.

This small excavated temple has a double range of columns typical of the Pallava dynasty of the 7-8th century, with a seated lion supporting the lower part of the shaft and the capital crowned by a group of three men on horseback supporting the cornice. The large relief sculpture on the adjacent rock surface beside the temple is dated to the mid-7th Century. It was at one time thought to depict the myth of the origin of the river Ganges and its descent on earth flowing through the tangled hair of Shiva, but is now more widely thought to represent the story of the penance of Arjuna, one of the heroes of the Mahabharata, a penance undertaken to win the magic axe of the god Shiva..

Mamallapuram, a tiny village south of Madras, was a flourishing port of the Pallava dynasty from the 5th - 8th centuries. The site is famous for a group of temples, a series of rock-cut caves and some monolithic sculptures created in the 7th century reign of Narasimhavarman Mahamalla. Covering two huge boulders, 27 m long and 9 m high, is the remarkable carving in low relief seen in this drawing.