The Pallava era monuments at Mamallapuram, where the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping took place in October 2019, will be among the highlights at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.
The replicas of the Shore Temple, Arjuna’s Penance and Nakula Sahadeva Ratha will form part of Tamil Nadu’s tableau, which was finalised after eight rounds of selection by the Defence Ministry. Four Bharatanatyam dancers will perform to Subramania Bharathi’s song ‘ Parukulle Nalla Nadu’, to be played on the nagaswaram. There will be four musicians — two on nagaswaram and two on thavil — on both sides of the tableau, an official told The Hindu.
The official said the major challenge while creating the tableau was to fashion something new that would look ancient. “We had to use clay but ensure that it looked eroded with the passage of time. A negative mould was taken and fibre glass was used. It was given a coat of paint to ensure that it resembled the monuments,” he said.
Of the 32 tableaux that will be paraded on the Rajpath, 16 belong to various States, and Tamil Nadu’s will be the fourth in the order. D. Baskara Pandian, director of the Information and Public Relations Department, is supervising the tableau.
