Varaha cave Temple Explorekerala-Tamilnadu Martin Travel Tips

#varahacavetemple#mahabelipurammalayalam#martintaveltipsvaraha Cave Temple is a rock-cut cave temple located at Mamalapuram known as Mahabalipuram. . it is approximately 58 kilometres from Chennai city and about 20 miles (32 km) from Chingelpet. Varaha cave temple built by Pallava kings Mahendra Varman I and Rajasimha or Narasimhavarman I known as Mamalla. This style was continued by Mamalla's son Parameshvaravarman.
The cave chamber, which faces west, is about 33 by 14 feet in width, and has a height of 11.5 feet .
The side walls have carved sculpture panels of Vishnu as Trivikrama and northern panel, which is very large, depicts Vishnu in the huge incarnated form of Varaha, the boar, lifting Bhudevi, the earth goddess symbolically representing removal of ignorance of human beings. In this panel, Varaha has four hands, two arms carrying shankha and chakra, which are shown towards the back and in one of the arms in the front he is carrying Bhudevi. There are no attendants fawning on him. However, the original panel has been plastered and painted.fresco panel of Durga sitting on a lotus and another panel of Vamana, another incarnation of Vishnu, is also seen in the cave