South of the hill (some 200 metres away) is a complex of rock- cut shrines called the Pancha (five) Rathas (chariots) named after the heroes of the Mahabharata, which are, possibly, not their original names. It is here that one sees architecture in action and every crucial stage of its evolutionary process. A closer look at the shrines will enable you to see how the artist carved each shrine out of the living rock, beginning from the top and working downwards.
Chisel markings and unfinished parts of the shrine add much to our admiration of the task of cutting the hard granite rock, from top to bottom, chip by chip, to fashion an entire temple. The first Ratha is named after Draupadi (the common wife of the five Pandav brothers, the heroes of the Mahabharata). The square shrine has a simple peaked roof, similar to a thatched hut, with decorated corners. This roof design was never used again in southern Indian architecture but was transmuted into a miniature hut motif and placed at every horizontal level of subsequent rathas, and later temples, throughout the region.