Olakkannesvara Temple

Next to the Mahishasura Mardhini cave, you will see a flight of steps leading up the hill. Atop that hill is the Olakkannesvara temple, the subject of our next story.

Can you see an old Lighthouse on the hill? Not the towering Lighthouse you can see from most parts of Mamallapuram; the structure we are referring to is the smaller, squarer monument that you see in front of you, not far from the modern Lighthouse.

The older monument is what remains of an 8th century temple to Lord Shiva, built during the reign of Rajasimha. But with time, the temple was vandalised, and the idols went missing. The tower fell off and all that remained was a flat roof. It has stood tall over the hillock for nearly 1300 years, its old glory forgotten.

We know that the temple was called Ulai-Kanneswara Temple. The word ‘Ulai Kann Easwara’ is another name for Shiva. It means the one with flaming eyes.

In the 1880s, the British felt a pressing need for a lighthouse on this rocky stretch of the coast. A lighthouse was commissioned, but in the meantime, they decided to erect a make-shift lighthouse on top of the old temple. They built a platform over the monument and installed a light on it. That served as a stopgap lighthouse for many years, until a modern Lighthouse came up in 1904. The modern Lighthouse is still in use, and you can go up to the top of it for a panoramic view of the area.

The local legend is that there was a lighthouse right here even during Pallava times. Mamallapuram was, after all, a bustling international sea port back then. A fire was built atop this hillock, high enough to be seen out at sea and guide the sailors to safety. If true, that would make this structure one of the oldest lighthouses in India. Archaeologists, however, have not yet found convincing evidence for this.