Let development tread gently by this mandapam on ECR

On the east coast, signposts to history arrive with impressive frequency, some bearing indelible clu

On the east coast, signposts to history arrive with impressive frequency, some bearing indelible clues into it and others offering just vague reminders of it.

Belonging to the latter category, a mandapam from many centuries ago stands on East Coast Road in Mamallapuram town, something anyone travelling from or towards Chennai cannot miss even with a half-closed eye.

This mandapam is one of those structures believed to have sheltered travellers — largely traders and pilgrims heading towards markets and places of worship respectively. However, going by the carvings it sports, a greater significance to this mandapam is likely encrypted into its walls. These carvings encapsulate the grand and the quotidian, and one of them has piqued considerable curiosity.

“It is believed to be a carving of a Dutch traveller,” says Ramanujar Maulana, a chronicler of heritage sites in and around Chennai, one who undertakes these exercises usually on a cycle.

Last year, Ramanujar Maulana wrote about this mandapam as part of his regular weekend chronicles on social media, calling it an “eclipse mandapam” because the engravings on its ceiling depict solar and lunar eclipses.

That is a conclusion apparently bolstered by observations made by others who have studied it.

“Temples in Thiruporur, Mamallapuram, Thiruvidanthai and Thiruvanmiyur do have mandapams, but these serve a different purpose, mostly being put to use during annual festivals in the form of mandapa padi,” says Ramanujar.