O, Mahabalipuram... Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Mahabalipuram,
O, Mahabalipuram,
Where your genealogy of Pallava kings,
What about Mamalla,
Where the record-keepers
Telling of the auspicious beginning
Of temple works and construction,
Where the records telling
Of royal visits and supervisions,
But silent we about artisans at work,
How was the place before,
How is it after the temples came up,
The roars of the sea,
How have you felt it,
How the cartography and topography of the town?

On the one side see I the seashore washing
The sideways, coming onto, retreating
While on the other temples,
The rock-cut temples decorating the site,
This the panoramas of the place,
The sea beach, the temple site
Landscapic with the Shore Temple,
How the mandapas and the rathas
Taking me back to historicity and historiography,
Temple art and architecture,
O, Mamallapuram,
Did, did you ever Narasimhavarman come, come to,
How, how would it have their chariots stationed near
The temple complex for a prayer and blessing,
A darshan of the presiding deity?

Where the Seven Pagodas that stood by you once
Of which one is existent now,
How your heyday of kings and queens,
The great Pallava kings and their lineage,
Hierarchy and ascension of thrones,
How the incursions and invasions,
How the tales of lot and plunder,
The darker periods with a trial of its own
Imagery of destruction,
As the time passes it with repercussions and upheavals,
How again the process of renovation and up keeping
Of things architectural, artistic and sculptural imagery.

O, how the rock relief showing the Descent of the Ganges
Known as Arjuna's penance,
Where your Mahendravarman,
The Pancha Ratha which started he
To be completed by Narasimhavarman,
It takes me heart away
And my eyes cannot believe it to see the architecture
The rocky elephant, the lion,
O, it is not architecture and sculpture,
It is but photography,
Photography of stupendous temple architecture!