The South Indian beach town of Mahabalipuram, once known as Mamallapuram, was the primary seaport of the Pallava kings who claimed authority over the surrounding Tamil-speaking region from the sixth to ninth centuries C.E. While the Pallavas reigned, artisans carved the site’s natural granite outcroppings into elegant sculptures and many architectural forms. The most dramatic of these, an entire cliff sculpted with dozens of colossal yet graceful figures of humans, animals, and deities, is the focus of this book. The subject of this composition has been a matter of extensive scholarly debate for over a century. Does it describe celebrations at the descent of the Ganga Rriver from heaven, the penance Arjuna undertakes to gain victory in the great war of the Mahabharata epic, the ideals of Pallava kingship, or all of these at once and perhaps others as well? Michael Rabe argues here that the ultimate meaning of the large Mamallapuram relief is as a visual counterpart of the celebratory lineage recitations (prasasti) that begin various inscriptions left by the Pallavas at other sites. He discerns that lineage in the now decaptitated figures around the representation of a Vishnu temple near the cliff’s center. He reads the foremost of...