I got a chance to find one of the oldest (may be rare collection) book from British Library converted in e-Book format.
The book named "DissertationsAndMiscellaneousPieces Vol I" ,this was written by group of people on 1784(not sure the exact publication year),published in London Printed by G.Nicols ,Book Seller to his Majesty.
One of the very interesting chapters on this book titled as
"Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the HISTORY and ANTIQUITIES, THE ARTS SCIENCE and LITERATURE OF ASIA. Account of the Sculptures and Ruins at Mavalipuram By William Chambers,ESQ at 17th June 1784"
I have attached the PDF file of this Chapter in the file section.
With the great interest I read that chapter which induced lot of interest on some of his observations. The "Mavalipuram", which he means is our Great Mahabalipuram.Here are the interesting observations from the book,
1. In the initial pages he took great pain to arrive at the Mavalipuram by comparing Sanskrit and by accounting the Mahabarat story.
2. In his entire chapter he refers the native language as "Tamulic" instead of Tamil.
3.The very most interesting observation was, he says, that he heard from native community that the native's oldest people used to say that they see a copper plated temple top in the sea which glitters when the sun ray falls on it."
Assuming that the oldest person of 1784 was 100 years of old at his/her younger age, if he had seen the copper plated temple top on the sea, then it should be some where in 1690-1700 AD.
That means on 16th century people could have seen some more temples which we did not see so far in Mahabalipuram.
4. Also on the writer period the "Tamil Brahmi" inscription found on the "Rajasimha" sculptures were not known. The author was trying to compare that inscription with the language from Bali.
5. Also the current shore temple did not mention in any of his descriptions.
I would request the expert group in our forum spend some time on reading this and throw more light on the observation made by the original author in the book.
I got a chance to find one of the oldest (may be rare collection) book from British Library converted in e-Book format.
The book named "DissertationsAndMiscellaneousPieces Vol I" ,this was written by group of people on 1784(not sure the exact publication year),published in London Printed by G.Nicols ,Book Seller to his Majesty.
One of the very interesting chapters on this book titled as
"Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the HISTORY and ANTIQUITIES, THE ARTS SCIENCE and LITERATURE OF ASIA. Account of the Sculptures and Ruins at Mavalipuram By William Chambers,ESQ at 17th June 1784"
I have attached the PDF file of this Chapter in the file section.
With the great interest I read that chapter which induced lot of interest on some of his observations. The "Mavalipuram", which he means is our Great Mahabalipuram.Here are the interesting observations from the book,
1. In the initial pages he took great pain to arrive at the Mavalipuram by comparing Sanskrit and by accounting the Mahabarat story.
2. In his entire chapter he refers the native language as "Tamulic" instead of Tamil.
3.The very most interesting observation was, he says, that he heard from native community that the native's oldest people used to say that they see a copper plated temple top in the sea which glitters when the sun ray falls on it."
Assuming that the oldest person of 1784 was 100 years of old at his/her younger age, if he had seen the copper plated temple top on the sea, then it should be some where in 1690-1700 AD.
That means on 16th century people could have seen some more temples which we did not see so far in Mahabalipuram.
4. Also on the writer times the "Tamil Brahmi" inscription found on the "Rajasimha" sculptures were not known. The author was trying to compare that inscription with the language from Bali.
5. Also the current shore temple did not mention in any of his descriptions.
I would request the expert group in our forum spend some time on reading this and throw more light on the observation made by the original author in the book.
During our dec visit to Mamallapuram, the ASI gentleman was showing us the newly discovered temple (skanda temple).
ASI is actually expecting the existance of temples along the coast line right from saluvankuppam all the way to shore temples.
The problem is they do not have sonor or xray kind of equipments which will tell them possible spots wherein a man made structure lies beneath the sands. This is where science can help archaeology. I saw in discovery channel, a researcher taking a machine along the sands of a desert and is able to accurately determine presence of a tomb.
Do we have any experts in the group on sonar / laser etc? (Non destructive testing stuff I believe)