Krishna's Butter Ball
Krishna's Butter Ball
A massive mysterious krishna’s butterball is 250 ton boulder of 20 feet high and 5 meter wide rock stands on a slippery slope of a hill on less than 4-feet base. It’s called as Krishna’s butterball because butter is his favourite food and it is a myth that it falls from heaven. It is also known as ‘Vaanirai Kal’ in Tamil which means ‘Stone of the Sky God’. The position of the rock is so surprising that it looks like it will roll down the slope. But, it stands still firm and tourists can even take shade under it. Even it is unmoved by Tsunami, earthquakes or cyclones for over 1200 years old.
One of the myths is also that the Pallava King Narasimha Varman made his first attempt to remove this rock as it was believed that ‘heavenly rock’ should not be touched by sculptors, but it remained in its position and did not moved a bit. Further Butterball became an inspiration in making the famous mud dolls called Tanjavur Bommai. As, the King Raja Raja Chola was impressed by the way rock stands on such a small base and did not roll down. Thus, a tradition developed from here to make mud dolls that never fell down.
BEST TIME TO VISIT:
Recommended – October to March (pleasant weather).
Not recommended – June and September (high temperature and heavy rainfall)
HOW TO REACH: 1 km from Mahabalipuram Bus Station
WHEN TO VISIT: 6AM TO 6PM
FARE: INR 10 – Indians (free for children below 15 years)\ INR 250 – Foreigners