I will bring to light some fascinating aspects
from the depths of history's ocean.
Questions that have remained unresolved until now
will finally find their answers.
A glimpse into the past,
with something new revealed in every moment of the present.
We'll talk about ancient science,
the logic of architects,
famous personalities
and every unsolved mystery buried in history.
Only on "History Hunter".
In today's episode, we'll travel to Mahabalipuram
and find the missing Pagodas.
Someone rightly said,
"To understand the future, you must first decode the past."
But I'm not here just to talk about the past,
I've set out to hunt historical mysteries.
Some twists in stories.
Some places which are not there today
but did exist centuries ago.
But I'm sure you can't resist yourself now,
so let's begin History Hunter with Maniesh Paul.
Mahabalipuram, a coastal town in Southeastern India,
which is renowned for its famous temples
and a few mysteries as well.
What was the purpose of building so many different monuments?
What is the reason for all this? We don't know.
The place was known as the Seven Pagodas,
but what exactly were these?
For the past several hundred years, they have been underwater.
There's so much marine growth on them
that determining what they are has become incredibly difficult.
These are freestanding monuments which had tapering roofs,
the tips of which were visible to marine travellers.
In Turkey, the Silk Route got blocked,
and the Europeans started finding a sea route to India.
They would come from the Gujarat side,
and they would navigate along the coast of India.
Mahabalipuram had its unique view
of showing seven towers of structure.
So they used this as a landmark
to realise that they have reached Mahabalipuram.
Did this place have a curse
that prevented some temples from being completed,
and those that were completed, disappeared?
Post the Pallava period in the 8th and 9th centuries,
there is a chance that there must've been a very bitter rivalry
between different people.
What is the truth behind Mahabalipuram's Seven Pagodas?
We will find out in today's episode of History Hunter.
Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.
About 60 km south of Chennai,
this historic town is also known as, "Mamallapuram".
It holds the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site
due to its 7th and 8th century cave temples,
showcasing monolithic freestanding shrines
known as "Rathas" or chariots.
Despite these cave temples being a UNESCO heritage site today,
they are shrouded in a peculiar mystery,
a riddle that has been associated with this place for years.
The Seven Pagodas or temples,
mentioned by marine travellers of the 16th-17th century
in Mahabalipuram are now missing.
Where did those temples go?
Today on History Hunter,
we will unravel the mystery of the missing Pagodas.
In the 18th century,
when Dutch travel writer and bookkeeper Jacob Hafner
visited this coastal town in South India,
his guides narrated stories
that had been passed down through generations,
originating from the forefathers of the local fishermen.
These stories revolved around temples
that were the pride of the Mahabalipuram coast.
On certain days,
they could actually see the khalasas, or the finials,
of five Pagodas which were made out of copper,
and they were glistening in the gold.
Hence, Haffner brings forth a story about
how these Seven Pagodas existed and all had drowned into the sea.
So whether the story of the Seven Pagodas is true or not,
remains uncertain.
In texts or inscriptions,
there is no mention of the Seven Pagodas.
Here, the word "Pagodas" refers to temples with conical tops.
Hafner was hearing stories
about the seven missing Pagodas from the locals,
but did he actually
have any evidence to fuel this mystery?
Absolutely, he did!
He had portolan charts or maps that marine travellers used.
During the 16th and 17th centuries,
European travellers passing by the coast of Mahabalipuram
mentioned the existence
of Seven Pagodas along the Mahabalipuram shore.
So there was a lot of trade between east and west,
and people moved through the Silk Route.
And then in Turkey, the Silk Route got blocked
and the Europeans started finding a sea route to India.
They would come from the Gujarat side
and they would navigate along the coast of India.
A lot of maps were made to guide these marine travellers.
And these maps are called, "Portolan Charts".
Mahabalipuram had its unique view
of showing seven pinnacles of seven towers of structure.
So that's how it got the name Seven Pagodas.
They used this as a landmark to realise
that they have reached Mahabalipuram.
During that time, western countries had trade
with India involving several items like tea, textiles, and spices.
When trade travellers from Europe and other countries
approached the East Sea route,
Mahabalipuram lay right in the middle of their sea route.
If Europeans wanted to go further to Southeast Asia and beyond,
Mahabalipuram, in that way, presented itself as a port
and also as a landmark for seafarers.
This trade had been happening for time immemorial
but probably more so in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries,
leading up to the colonial period.
In fact, it was so thriving
that Pliny the Younger actually said
that Rome was being bled dry
because it was paying so much money to the South Indian traders.
And one of the Caesars tried to impose a moratorium,
saying we will not trade with South India.
And he couldn't implement it
because Rome's thirst for luxury goods was so high.
Ivory was a big export that we gave.
In fact, the biggest export was pepper.
You could not have a great Roman party
with meat dishes without pepper flavouring it.
We sold nutmeg and cardamom as well.
You had woven cotton cloth
which had embroidery or painting on it.
Every permutation and combination went.
Travellers were coming. Good.
They were trading. Very good.
They had also made maps to identify Mahabalipuram
and even mentioned Seven Pagodas in them.
But before solving the mystery of the Seven Pagodas,
we need to understand
the connection between Mahabalipuram and its temples.
Today, most people refer to this town as "Mahabalipuram".
However, the more appropriate way to call it would be "Mamallapuram",
which is the old name for the town.
"Mamalla" in Sanskrit means a great wrestler, "Maha-Malla".
This was a Marudhu or title.
Mahendravarman Pallava, who ruled from 580 to 630 CE,
gave this title upon himself.
It is largely believed
that he was instrumental in creating many of the structures
around the hillock, which you find today.
His successor Rajasimha Pallava, who ruled from 690 to 725 CE,
also played a role in Mamallapuram's history.
The most significant structure that he built was the Shore Temple.
Mahendravarman Pallava was truly a genius.
He revolutionised the concept in Tamil Nadu.
During the short span of 20-30 years of his rule,
it is believed that more than about 10,15 cave temples
were constructed across Tamil Nadu,
entirely built with so much precision in granite.
In some of these cave temples, you have two pillars in the front
and a shrine built exactly in proportion to those pillars.
The shrine, including the linga inside
and the steps, were all carved from the mother rock.
This is done using only a hammer and a chisel.
How could such amazing temples have been built
by carving a solid rock hillock?
This is truly a remarkable feat.
But the bigger mystery is
that most temple structures in Mahabalipuram are incomplete.
What could be the reason for their incomplete construction?
Could it be the same reason behind the disappearance
of the Seven Pagodas from the Mahabalipuram shore also?
Mahabalipuram has the name "Seven Pagoda".
The word or the number seven associated with it
has been a mystery among people
who have been studying Mahabalipuram.
The reference to seven is also
because seafarers could see seven such pinnacles.
However, today, if you sail across Mahabalipuram,
you will not see seven, but you will see one or two
because the shore temple has a tall and short tower.
You may see two if you consider it as two,
or if you consider it as one, you would see one.
So, there is a mystery about what these Seven Pagodas are?
Many people have speculated that maybe this is one,
and the remaining six are underwater,
because there are a lot of remains underwater also.
Some others think this is one,
and the Pancha Rathas, which are a set of five monuments
closest to the water, may be related.
But by no strength of imagination, if you are sailing across,
you would see these five Pancha Rathas standing out
because they are in a slightly lower area.
In 2003,
a team from the National Institute of Oceanography initiated a project
to explore the Mahabalipuram coast.
When we were surveying
about 500 metres off the current shore temple,
there were a lot of reefs among
which we observed numerous structures.
If you measure that particular area,
you will find it to be roughly around 300 by 300 metres.
The process of the structures submerged in water is slow.
It is possible
that people might have been moving those things around,
so we won't find completely intact structures.
We'll find things at the bottom,
which we call the foundation area or the base.
This clearly implies that the structures underwater
might belong to the same era as the ones on land.
We know that the structures on land are from the Pallava period.
So, until we have any authentic evidence,
we connect these submerged structures
in a general sense to the Pallava period.
In this underwater research, some ruins were found,
but it doesn't prove conclusively
that the missing Seven Pagodas are underwater.
However, a Tsunami in 2004 unveiled
several other secrets of this location.
When the tsunami happened in 2004, during subsequent excavations,
they found a lot of dressed stone blocks arranged in a line.
Like, you know, places for ships to anchor.
It was found that the Tsunami had also washed off sand
on some rocks and so on.
These rocks revealed some inscriptions,
which showed that there was a temple around.
Excavations were conducted and they found a temple,
but it was some distance towards the north of Mahabalipuram.
It is called, "Saluvankuppam".
One theory suggests
that the Shore Temple is one of those Seven Pagodas,
but the question remains,
if this is one, where are the other six?
And if this isn't one of them, then where are the remaining seven?
There are different stories.
The Shore Temple itself has actually two temples.
There's one in the front, and one in the back.
So, do you count that as one?
Do you count that as two in the seven or six?
There's a bit of a debate.
Either we have to go by the Hafner story
of how there are more temples buried under.
Are there five buried or six buried?
Only time will tell. Excavations will tell.
In the 2004 excavations,
when they found a massive temple floor plan on the land itself.
So there's a chance that there maybe other temples buried over here.
But because of the sand and earth conditions,
they might have collapsed.
They might have been destroyed over a period of time.
Because remember, even the Pancha Rathas and all of them
were largely covered by sand by the 19th century.
The other possibility is that if you count,
if you say Kadal Mallai was the area of the port
and Mamallapuram was the area of the town.
The Pancha Rathas are fairly close to the Shore Temple.
If you count them together, you get seven.
Inside the water, we haven't found anything
that we can confidently say was a part of any Pagoda.
The Shore Temple has a main sanctum and one behind it.
So, if we count these two
and also count the five Pancha Rathas,
which are located about a kilometre inland from the coast,
perhaps they were collectively referred
to as the Seven Pagodas during that time.
But apart from this, there were some other possibilities
that I discovered from Professor M.B. Rajani.
Will these possibilities help us
in solving the mystery of the Seven Pagodas?
Let's see.
I went to the British Library
and Royal Geographic Society Archives and so on.
I got one map with the title
"Portolan chart, Coast of Malabar."
The word Portolan chart raised my curiosity.
I didn't know what Portolan charts were.
So out of sheer curiosity,
I requested for that map to be brought.
And then there was metadata about that map.
This was a Dutch map made in 1670
and of the coast of Coromandel, that is the Tamil Nadu coast.
So the archivist produced this map and I was so surprised
because it was not on paper, it was on parched goatskin,
and it didn't have latitude, longitude.
It had lines going all across.
So out of sheer curiosity, I made some notes,
including a drawing of parts of that map.
I found as I was searching for known places on the map,
I found Chennai, I found Chidambaram,
and I found a few more places.
And I found a place marked as Seven Pagoda
and its location matched with Mahabalipuram,
when I was looking for other places on the coast.
So this sort of created more curiosity
that Mahabalipuram was marked as Seven Pagodas,
and more interestingly,
it also had a shoreline marked
and seven monuments dotted around the shoreline.
When we started comparing the Portolan chart
of 1670 marked as Seven Pagodas
with satellite imagery of Mahabalipuram,
it was really exciting to see that the coastline is different.
It was even more exciting to see
that the Portolan chart marks monuments of specific shapes.
So there is one monument marked in the water
which has a tall and a short tower,
very much similar in shape and profile to the Shore Temple.
This confirms
that one of the Seven Pagodas is indeed the shore temple!
Hold on a minute, don't make noise so quickly.
Let's allow a few more dots to connect.
So I identified the locations of boats.
And then there is another temple
which has a flat roof marked on the mound.
So when I tried to identify free-standing temples,
I found Vlakkanatha temple, or the Lighthouse Temple,
has the same profile.
It has a flat roof.
Then another temple
which has a sort of semi-circular roof
matches with Ganesha Ratha.
Another temple, which is small, matches Mukunda-Nayanar.
Then there are three at the back behind the mound
which has tapering towers.
So these match with the two Pidari Rathas and one Valayankuttai,
which is behind the main mound.
The distribution of one in the water,
three on the mound and three behind
matched with one close to the shore currently
and three on the mound and three behind.
The most important aspect of all the dots
that M.B. Rajani was connecting was to see
whether the Portolan chart matched the past coastline
of this area or not.
Because shorelines tend to change from time to time.
I visited the museum of ISRO Centre in Ahmedabad,
where I saw satellite imagery of various sites.
I looked at Mahabalipuram
and was able to clearly see the coastline
and the locations of the monuments.
But did this reveal any clues about the missing Seven Pagodas?
Were the missing Pagodas actually submerged in water
or buried beneath the ground?
Or did M.B. Rajani find any hints in his research
that permanently solved the mystery of the missing Seven Pagodas?
I just needed a quick loo break.
You know, my app, Harpic Loocatar
helps me locate nearby public toilets.
You should use it too, it's very helpful.
M.B. Rajani has discovered how the shoreline changed over time.
But how will she locate the missing Seven Pagodas?
That's the big question.
We proceeded to make a digital elevation model,
a 3D model of the landscape,
and then a 3D model of these structures.
We placed them in their appropriate places.
Using the software,
we tried to raise the water level, metre by metre,
until we could see the shape of the peninsula.
We did find that three were on the peninsula,
one in the water, and three behind.
So the strange thing is what people thought,
that we've lost some structures to the water,
and there is a mystery of where the remaining went.
But using this map, it was revealed that it's not
that the remaining structures are lost in water,
but they are on land
and the coastline has actually receded since then.
So, the mystery has been created thinking
that we don't know where the Seven Pagodas are,
but actually, these Seven Pagodas are in plain sight at the location.
It's only that the coastline has changed.
The coast was where the Pagodas are now.
So if you go to the site,
you will actually see the Pagodas standing.
And those Pagodas were standing along the coast in the past.
According to M.B. Rajani,
the missing Seven Pagodas of Mahabalipuram,
which Dutch traveller Jacob Hafner had heard
about from his guides and locals, are right here.
We can still see these missing Pagodas today,
right in front of us.
When we view history through today's lens,
some people perceive very little while others see a lot!
However, researchers, scholars,
and historians present us with evidence
based on their research and logic that often come close to the truth.
And I took this task upon my shoulders for you.
I delved quite deeply into the mystery
of Mahabalipuram's missing Pagodas.
Referring to the 1670 Dutch portolan chart,
M.B. Rajani's theory seemed very close to the truth
in solving the mystery of the Seven Pagodas for me.
I've tried to solve as much of the mystery
surrounding Mahabalipuram's Seven Pagodas as possible.
However, you never know
what secrets lie hidden in the depths of the ocean
and within the earth.
That's all in today's History Hunter.
This is MP signing off.
And remember, don't be a troublemaker,
be a History Hunter.
Subtitle Caption by ZestCorp