Mysteries of Mahabalipuram: How undersee ruins could change history of temple town

A favourite summer activity of Chennai residents is to go on weekend early morning rides along the scenic beaches across the east coast to Mahabalipuram. But a recent discovery may have re-written the history of this ancient coastal town in Tamil Nadu.If the name Mahabalipuram doesn’t ring a bell, let us jog your memory. It is the same town where Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted Chinese premier Xi Jinping for the second informal India-China summit in December 2019. It is some 60km from Chennai.This place has some rich history, and some mystery. Mahabalipuram, also called Mamallapuram, is a coastal town known for its magnificent architecture built by the Pallava kings, who ruled parts of the present states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka between the 3rd and the 9th century. The town still has many monuments like the rock-cut caves and a shore temple which attracts hundreds of Indian and foreign tourists every year. Recently, researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa found many ruins in the sea nearly a kilometre away from the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. The researchers found that the ruins were submerged in the first century, i.e much before the Pallava’s built the town.This is what AS Gaur, one of the researchers from NIO Goa, had to say about their discovery: “We conducted an underwater investigation in 2017 where our divers went underwater and identified three sites with walls and stone, sculpture… They looked like temples. We collected marine growth from the cities and subjected them to carbon dating… We found one of the sites nearly a kilometre away from the existing shore temple to have submerged in the 1st century, which means those structures were built much before the Pallava reign.”But who built these structures before the Pallavas arrived? Historical records say that Mahabalipuram was a busy seaport. It always saw many ships anchored and people busy in foreign trade.Aside from the pre-Pallava structural ruins, researchers also found vestiges that they say could have gone under water in the 14th and the 19th century. They found similarities between these ruins and the existing Pallava monuments and concluded they may have been built by the Pallavas. Another theory, an old legendThere is another story, which could possibly be a link to the 14th and 19th century ruins researchers have discovered near Mahabalipuram. Legend has it that there were seven temples or pagodas built during the Pallava rule, but six of them were swallowed by the sea. The seventh and the only remaining temple still stands on the shore and we call it the shore temple.Many European explorers who visited Mahabalipuram spoke about the seven Pagodas.In 1869 Mark William Carr in his book, titled Descriptive and Historical Papers Relating to the Seven Pagodas on the Coromandel Coast, mentioned an account of John Goldingham, an English astronomer who lived in Madras in the late 18th and early 19th century, about his visit and the legend in 1798.Getting back to the discovery of pre-Pallava ruins, local archaeologists aren’t surprised at the discovery because they always believed there were pre-Pallava ruins under water which weren't documented. On several occasions, including as recently as in April 2022, local fishermen captured videos of the ruins emerging from the sea during low tide. The videos went viral on social media.But what could have possibly submerged these structures built centuries ago? NIO researchers say extreme events like cyclones or tsunami could have eroded the coast and resulted in local sea level rise which could have eventually swallowed all these structures. Historians say many of these structures including the port could have gone under water because of a tsunami-like event that took place in 952AD. But what remains in the town still continues to attract thousands of tourists every day.Anchor: Mary JosephAudio production: Basant Singhal