Mahabalipuram Dance Festival : Timings, Entry Fee, Dates, Schedule, Venue

Mahabalipuram Dance Festival

Vital Information for Visitors

Address:

Arjuna’s Penance, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu

Open & Close:

December & January

Entry Fees:

Nil

Duration of Festival:

Three Weeks

Visiting Time:

6:00 PM – 08:00 PM

Dance Forms:

Classical Indian Dances & folk dances

Mahabalipuram Dance Festival is an annual cultural event that highlights rich heritage of vocal & instrumental music, dance and attires with world renowned architectural monument – the Arjuna’s Penance. Dance festivals are organized in many famous ancient temples in India. The reason being, most of the classical Indian dance forms originated from the temples only. Thus, temples at the backdrop of the dance festivals indicate the umbilical relation between the temple and dance. A rock-cut monument, Arjuna’s Penance is a huge sculpture of “the Descent of Ganges’’. It’s an open air rock monument situated in Mahabalipuram near Chennai in Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located at the center of Mahabalipram. The sculpture is of the time of Pallava Dynasty. It was built to celebrate the victory of Narasimhavarman I over Chalukya Emperor Pulakesin. As capital city, Mahabalipuram had been of great importance during Pallava rule. There are many historically & architecturally significant rock-cut monuments like Shore temple. The monuments of Mahabalipuram are famous for having world’s oldest and biggest bas reliefs. Arjuna’s Penance or ‘the Descent of Ganges’ is a beautifully and intricately etched sculpture and carved on two huge rocks explaining many things in which the story of Arujan’s Penance and the descent of Ganges have been mainly depicted.

The sculpted art depicts the story of Arjuna who had done Tapasya to please Lord Shiva to get a weapon for Mahabharata war. According to mythology, it is said that Lord Shiva got happy and blessed Arjuna with his most powerful weapon ‘Pashupastra’. In a carved statue, a figure shown standing on one leg, is said to be Arjuna. The descent of Ganges is the story of Bhagiratha’s effort to bring Ganga down to the Earth. For this purpose he also did Tapasya to please God Shiva. It is said, according to Hindu mythology, that Lord Shiva had captured the whole Ganga in His tress (‘jataa’) when it came from heaven. Having been pleased with the austerities, Lord Shiva broke his one hair and left it on earth as a part of Ganga. Gods and goddesses of Hindu pantheon are shown witnessing this event. Some animal figures are also carved out. The carving of elephants is so large in size that it has dimensions like real elephants. Another such kind of carving is of monkeys. The monument faces towards east and represent a good art and imagination. The Monument has its own importance in world and it is listed under UNESCO world heritage site in 1984.

Mahabalipuram Dance Festival is organized in December / January. The festival is an opportunity to know about the diversity of a dances performed in India. Talented dancers from all the states of India come here to showcase their talent and culture of their regions. It was started in 1992 by the Tamil Nadu department of tourism. The duration of festival is about three weeks. The festival is now known as Indian Dance Festival. Various classical Indian dance forms such as Kathakali, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi and many folk dances such as Karagam, Kavadi, Thappattam, Oyilattam etc. are performed & showcased during the festival.

The nearest big city is Chennai, and Chennai can be reached by flight, train or bus and from there some transport will be available for Mahabalipuram.