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Mahabalipuram, or Kadal Mallai as it was called in Tamil, contains the earliest and largest collection of sculptures  in Tamilnadu. All the monuments belong to the seventh and early eighth centuries A.D. and were once painted over in brilliant colour. King Mahendra and his two queens, other royal figures with crowns, and warriors offering their own heads as human sacrifice, are depicted in addition to common people. In the sculptures of this period very little difference is seen between the deities and human beings in the types of dress and ornaments. Gods and goddesses are represented in idealized human form except for the large number of hands.

SARI NOT IN VOGUE IN PALLAVA PERIOD!

The sculptor depicted what he saw in life around him. Even though there are scores of sculptures of female figures in Mahabalipuram not one is shown with a sari. It is hard to believe that the sculptors would have depicted the queens and milkmaids in other costumes if the sari was the common costume of the period. However the veshti is shown on many figures both male and female worn in different styles. Shorts are depicted on both male and female figures and the Tamil words soorai and vattudai refer to some such costume. Both men and women wore bangles on the wrist and the forearm. No female figure at Mahabalipuram is shown without a bangle. One of the symptoms of love-lorn lasses of those days was that bangles would slip down and fall off the hand, a hazard young women of today avoid by wearing wrist watches with tight straps!

A close study of the dress and ornaments of Mahabalipuram reveals many important changes in fashion in the Pallava court of the seventh and early eighth centuries. From the sculptures of Sanchi and Barhut to the days of Amaravati and Ajanta, it is only women who are decked with anklets. This general rule is followed in the works of the Pallava kings Mahendravarman and Narasimhan. In the works of Rajasimhan, however, men are also depicted with leg ornaments as can be seen from the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi and the Shore temple.   

This remarkable change is parallel to the increase in the number of anklets of women from one to four in Rajasimha's period. In the early Pallava works women are often shown with breast-bands without any shoulder straps which were invented in the days of Rajasimha. Again in the same period, men started wearing the sacred thread along with the thick garland which goes over left shoulder. In contrast to later day sculptures there are no ornaments on the shoulders. However more than five varieties of arm-bands are depicted in the upper arms. The simplest is a circular band called tholvalai bangle of the fore-arm and not of the shoulder.

Six different makutas and 10 different ear-ornaments can be seen at Mahabalipuram. Even though the early Tamil dictionary contains an elaborate list of ornaments it is difficult to identify them by name on the sculptures. Ten kinds of necklaces can be seen some of them with pretty pendants. Necklaces with huge pearls are often mistaken for rudraksha maalai by many observers. Flower garlandsthough the flowers are not marked as clearly as in Chola sculpture are shown on door-keepers and others going over the left shoulder and then over the right hand in the typical Pallava fashion. The yagnopavita, contrary to the popular notion, does not always go over the right arm and many varieties of this ornament can be seen in Mahabalipuram. Men are shown with an ornamental stomach-band and women with breast-band without shoulder straps. Men are shown with belts with simple buckles and women are shown with long sashes tied round the waist. Sashes called the uttariya are shown going over the shoulder. The queens and many deities at Mahabalipuram are represented without breast-bands. A common women's costume is like a bikini tied at the back with ends let down at the back. Such a costume, sometimes depicted as diaphanous, is often missed by many observers. Even male figures are sometimes shown in such a costume but the most common undergarment for men is the loin-cloth.

A fashionable lady of the Pallava period wore a crown with garlands, two different kinds of ear-ornaments on the long lobes, one or two necklaces of precious stones, bands on arms and hands, and a pair of large anklets on legs. She went about bare-footed. Her body was painted attractively in three colours with sandalwood paste, chunnam and red kunkum, and her eye-lids with anjanam. She often wore a narrow breast-band for outdoor activities, a brief garment at the waist and a narrow girdle. She did not wear any nose-ornament, which ornament was introduced several centuries later.

A fashionable young man was clean-shaven and he wore a crown with garlands, ear-ornaments similar to those worn by women, a necklace or two of precious stones, arm-bands and bangles. An ornamental band on the lower chest, a simple narrow belt on the waist and occasionally a dagger hanging from a special belt were worn. A thick string or garment was worn over the left shoulder and another round the waist. These were worn over a brief garment. He went about bare-footed.