Describe the evolution and development of regional temple architecture of South India with special reference to Pallavas.

Answer:

South Indian temple architecture, the Dravida style, matured through a clear and well-documented evolutionary sequence under the Pallavas of Kanchi, between about the sixth and ninth centuries CE. Moving in stages from rock-cut caves to monolithic shrines and finally to structural temples, the Pallavas laid the very foundation on which the Cholas would later build their monumental temples.

The rock-cut beginnings

• Mahendravarman I initiated cave-temples (mandapas) hewn from living rock, dispensing with brick and timber, as at Mandagappattu.
• He proudly styled himself vichitrachitta, the curious-minded, for pioneering this new mode of building.
• This Mahendra style established the pillared hall and the rock-cut cell as the temple's nucleus.

The monolithic phase

• Under Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla), the famous rathas at Mahabalipuram were carved as monolithic model shrines.
• The five so-called Pandava rathas experiment with varied plans and reveal the emerging vimana and shikhara.
• The great open-air relief, the Descent of the Ganga, displays the accompanying sculptural brilliance.
• Mahabalipuram thus became a laboratory of architectural experiment.

The structural temples

• Rajasimha (Narasimhavarman II) built the first great structural temples in dressed and jointed stone.
• These include the celebrated Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi.
• Nandivarman's Vaikuntha Perumal temple at Kanchi further developed the storeyed vimana and enclosed prakara.

Features of the mature Dravida style

• The Dravida temple crystallised its distinctive elements: the square vimana, pyramidal shikhara and flat-roofed mandapa.
• The complex was enclosed by a prakara wall pierced by a towering gopura gateway.
• Sculpture, iconography and narrative relief were fully integrated with the architecture.
• Dvarapalas, somaskanda panels and richly carved pillars became characteristic Pallava motifs.

Wider context and legacy

• Contemporary Chalukyan work at Badami and Aihole developed the parallel Vesara idiom.
• This Pallava vocabulary was inherited and monumentalised by the Cholas at Thanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram.
• Pallava forms also influenced temple building in South-East Asia through maritime contact.
• It thus became the enduring template of southern temple building for centuries.

The Pallavas thus authored the decisive transition from rock-cut to structural temple building in the south, moving in barely two centuries from cave to monolith to dressed stone. As Percy Brown observed, their bold experiments at Mahabalipuram and Kanchi created the very grammar of the Dravida style that would dominate South Indian architecture, and influence South-East Asia, for the next thousand years.