Carved Beauty of Mahabalipuram: South India S Oldest.Hindu Temples When south Indian architects turned away from brick and wood temples in the 7th century A.D., they picked a hard way to do it. They started to carve their edifices from solid rock. Starting with simple caves, the masters worked up- to whole temples and large animals. The center of their art-and site of the oldest caves-is Mahabalipuram, 35 miles south of present-day Madras City. Jewel-like Mahabalipuram lacks the massiveness of Ellora, when Hindu sculp- tors cut 107 feet down into a hill side to fashion a stupendous monolithic temple. And Mahabalipurom hasn't the delicate wall paintings of Ajanta's Bhuddist caves. But set cn a coastal hill surrounded by rice paddies, it makes up for its lack of the spectacular by a quiet exquisiteness broken only by antics of resident monkeys. Now a major tourist attraction, Maha- balipuram was set out in the seventh cen- tury as the port for the Pallava dynasty, which ruled much of south India between 300 and 800 A.D. The Five Rathas are dedicated to Siva, one of Hinduism's mighty trinity, and to his consorts. The size of the visitors beside the left-most shrine indicates the magnitude of the artists' job as they worked on the massive rock out-croppings. Though weathered considerably, the shrines remain in good condition. The most spectacular carving, Arjuna's Penance, contains a welter of figures and has given rise to a welter of scholarly interpretations story of the epichero after whom it is named, but others say it concerns the story of Siva in his form of beggar or the coming of the hol foot high relief represents, is certainly is filled with graceful figures whose airy poses belie their solid ties to the earth. Rather a primitive cave architecture evolved gradually toward more graceful forms as pillars became more elegant, and sculp- tured. Lions at the pillars' base guard the later temple (right). Outer halls led to smaller shrines which usually contained linga, the squat stone phallic symbols that represent Siva's creativity. These are the oldest temples in South India since time has obliterated their wood and brick predecessors. One inscilption says the Pallavas who created Mahabalipuram "were pious . .. destroyed age . . . spoke the truth .. . were profound ... forcibly subdued lust and other internal foe dowed with polity and modesty." The Pallavas thus managed to avoid the worst boasts of S mighty works met a similar fate. Tradition says the Shore Temple, built, not carved, about 700 was one of seven such pagodas which graced a beautiful port city. Says'the legend: when the king wanted to make the city even more beautiful, he aroused the jealousy of the god Indra who sent his storm to overwhelm the pagodas. Today, the remaining temple stands in solitary majesty on the wide, sandy beach of the Bay of Bengal. PHOTOGRAPHS AND STORY by Phli . Shra The war-like goddess Durga rides her traditional lion. She rode it to victory over Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed demon, symbolizing triumph of good over evil. This sculpture is preserved in the courtyard of the Shore Temple. The elephant is the vehic rain, and- one of the old. more modern Hindu panti The lion,, hicle of the war- like goddess Durga, stands FIve Rathas.