Little away to the south of the Unfinished Penance monument in Mamallapuram, Dharmaraja Mandapa is located. Though the town gets hundreds and thousands of visitors every day, hardly anyone visits this monument.

Due to its primitive and simple design and style, many scholars assign the shrine to the period of Mahendravarma Pallava. The inscriptions call it Atyantakama Pallavesvara Griham. Not sure why, how and when people started referring to it as Dharmaraja Mandapa. It is totally a misnomer.

The east-facing cave temple has three shrines with a long Mukha mandapa on the front side. The comparatively larger-sized central shrine is given prominence. Two Dwarapalas are found at its entrance. The staircases have parapets only in this shrine. 

All three cells are empty but have empty sockets indicating the presence of Shiva Linga earlier.

The images of Dwarapalas in the central cell are chiseled off. From the remains, we can clearly see that they are two-armed, with one arm resting on their waists and another arm raised above. 

As per a few scholars, these Dwarapalas lack Shaivite features, and hence the original Vishnu shrine was converted as a shrine of Shiva. I disagree with this opinion. The Pallava inscription clearly mentions that it was a Shiva temple built by Atyantakama. I do not see any reason for a Pallava King to convert a Vishnu temple into a Shiva temple.

Instead, I believe there was probably an attempt by the Vijayanagara Kings to convert this into a Vishnu temple. The Vaishnavite symbols, conch and discus, are engraved on the pillars. Perhaps the sculptures were chiseled off at that time. 

To my knowledge, whoever wrote about this mandapa, believed that three shrines were dedicated to Tri Murtis, namely Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. I differ from their opinion. Possibly, these temples were meant to enshrine three forms of Shiva.

The Mukha Mandapa is supported on two rows of pillars and pilasters. The top and bottom of the pillars are square, with the middle portion octagonal. The façade has a heavy cornice devoid of any decorative elements.

An inscription written in Pallava Grantha, consisting of eleven Sanskrit verses, is found on the southern outer wall. It provides nineteen titles (birudas) to the Pallava King who built this shrine. 

The list of nineteen birudas:

1) Srinidhi

2) Sribhara

3) Atyantakama

4) Ranajaya

5) Rajaraja

6) Tarunankura

7) Kamaraga

8) Gunabhajana

9) Chitramaya

10) Svastha

11) Sthanu

12) Soma

13) Bhima

14) Kamasudana

15) Chakrabhrit

16) Dvisaddarppapaharin

17) Hararadhanasamgin

18) Tarakadhipati

19) Pavakatma

Now, who is this King having all the titles as mentioned above? That's a million-dollar question. Many scholars concluded that Mahendravarma Pallava was the one who built this temple. However, Sri Nagaswamy, a great historian, assigned these titles to Rajasimha Pallava. I would agree with him. I would not document my reason for agreeing with him, as it would become lengthier, which is not the scope of this article.

Happy travelling.

Note: I have written about Mamallapuram twelve years ago in my blog. This article about Dharmaraja Mandapa is a detailed one, based on my recent visit to the site.