Mamandur is just 10 km away from Kanchipuram in Vandavasi road. We reached mamandur after crossing Dusi. Initially it was confusing to reach the place, since the local people were showing us two paths. But luckily we found the right one that had motorable road till the gate. The gate was closed with a big lock but the local boys who were playing near by told us the secret that the lock is just for show and if we remove the chain we can go inside.
What is in Mamandur ?
Cave Temples. Yes, As I have mentioned earlier, Pallavas started the experiment of building temples using stones in South India. The first phase of this experiment was cave temples like the ones in Mamandur. Then came the temples that are bulit using a single rock like the five rathas in Mahabalipuram. Then they built the magnificient Shore temple and Kailasanathar temples.
There are four cave temples in Mamdur. From the inscriptions here, it is known that these temples were bulit by the Pallava king Mahendravarman I in 7th century. The first cave is dedicated to Narasimha.
In the inscription on the first cave, the lines 12 and 13 say that the king wanted to achieve what was not achieved before in the field of music. Mahendravaraman I was excelled in many arts and thus got many names like Vichitra Chitta, Chitrakara puli, etc.
The second cave has three sanctom sactorums belong to the three gods; Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. This can be identified by the dhavara balagas sculpted for all these sanctoms. From the inscription here, we can know that the shiva temple here was called as Uruttiravaliswaram.
Also the small lake nearby called 'Chitramega Tadaka' was also built by Mahendravarman I.
I can give you more facts about the cave temples but that would be just copy pasting from this post. So instead of that I would recommend you to read this, if you want to know more about these temples.
PS: There is a place called Mandagapattu nearby. From the inscriptions there, it is said that it was the first ever cave temple made by Mahendravaraman I. Thus we can say that it is the oldest temple of tamilnadu. Read this blogpost to know more about the place.
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