India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (265 page)

As you wend your way around town, all sorts of men and boys will try to “adopt” you by starting up polite conversations—a pattern you will quickly recognize—before getting down to the business of offering their services for a range of possible needs: tour guides, transport, bicycle hire, shopping assistance, advice, or a tour of the local village school. All are moneymaking enterprises of which you should be wary; best to make it very clear that you have no intention of parting with your money, and leave it to your new friend to decide whether or not to stick around.

A Jolly Good Ride!

If you have the legs for it, hire a cycle from the hotel you’re staying at or from outside the Western Group (Rs 30/hr). Despite the tourist influx, Khajuraho is still steeped in its traditional rural ways and as you cycle through the village, making your way to the Eastern and Southern temples, you’ll enjoy a much more authentic and warmer interaction with the locals (versus those who lurk outside the main temples); for directions, you just have to say your destination and you’ll be sent the right way. Kids are absolutely delightful and will run after you or just wave depending on how involved they are with their own game of (usually) cricket; wizened faces smile and nod as if they were expecting you all this time; and with enough goats and cows and chickens along the way, you are bound to feel like you’re in a rural idyll—especially during sunset, when everything turns strangely quiet and magical, and with the wind in your hair and the smell of earth and clean air, you feel, for the briefest moment, that this is home.

EXPLORING KHAJURAHO’S TEMPLES

Known for the profusion of sculptural embellishments on both exterior and interior walls, Khajuraho’s temples are also recognizable for the exaggerated vertical sweep in the majority of the temples, with a series of
shikharas
(spires) that grow successively higher. Serving as both metaphoric and literal “stairways to heaven,” these
shikharas
are believed to be a visual echo of the soaring Himalayan mountains, abode of Lord Shiva. Most of the sculpted temples are elevated on large plinths (often also shared by four smaller corner shrines), and follow the same five-part design. After admiring the raised entrance area, you will enter a colonnaded hall that leads to a smaller vestibule and then an inner courtyard, around which is an enclosed sanctum. You can circumnavigate the sanctum (move around the temple in a clockwise direction, in the manner of the ritual
pradakshina,
with your right shoulder nearest the temple building) to view the beautifully rendered friezes of gods, nymphs, animals, and energetically twisting bodies locked together in acts of hot-blooded passion.

Originally spread across a large open area, unprotected by walls, the temples—most of them built from sandstone lugged on bullock carts from the banks of the River Ken 30km (19 miles) away—are today roughly divided into three sections according to geographic location: the Western, Eastern, and Southern groups. The most spectacular—and those most obviously dripping with erotic sculpture—are within the Western Group. The Eastern Group is located near the old village, and the Southern Group, which is the most missable, lies south of this. As none of the temples outside the Western Group are likely to evoke quite the same delighted reaction, see these first if you’re pushed for time or tired; they’re also conveniently located near the majority of hotels. Try to enter as soon as they open (sunrise), not only for the quality of light but to avoid the busloads of tourists who will almost certainly detract from the experience.

You can cover the Western Group in 2 hours. The baritone voice of Amitabh Bachchan, arguably India’s most popular screen icon, narrates the fascinating history of Khajuraho for the 50-minute
sound-and-light show
held here each night at 6:30pm (1 hr. later in summer). Try to time your visit to the Eastern Group for about 3 or 4pm, so you can enjoy the sunset while you return either to the Western Group or to the imminently more peaceful Chaturbhuj Temple in the Southern Group.

Tip:
Remember when setting out to explore the temples that you need to wear shoes that you can easily slip on and off before and after you enter a temple building—even if it is no longer in use.

Western Group

As you make your way around the complex in a clockwise direction, the first important structure you’ll encounter is
Lakshmana Temple
,
one of the three largest in Khajuraho. Built in commemoration of military victory and temporal power, it is thought to be one of the earliest Chandela temples, completed around
A.D.
954, yet relatively intact. The structure is as high as it is long, and its raised platform is, like the entire temple, heavily decorated with a variety of sculptures that allude to the pleasures, pastimes, lifestyle, desires, and conquests of the Chandela dynasty. Here you will witness an astonishing diversity of scenes: horse-mounted hunters pursuing their prey, musicians providing lively entertainment for the court, couples drunk on love and liquor, female attendants fanning their king, elephants engaged in playful battle, soldiers on the march, and, of course, amorous couples keeping themselves occupied in the most literal of pleasures. Higher up, above bands of images of Shiva and Vishnu, are the voluptuous depictions of women engaged in worldly activity while draped in little more than jewelry and gossamer-like garments. Inside the temple, covered with more depictions of gorgeous women and deities in their various avatars and incarnations, light pours in through high balconies on each side of the structure, and shadows are cast seductively over the imaginatively carved walls. The main shrine was built to house the three-headed image of Vishnu-Vaikuntha, which features one human head and the head of two of Vishnu’s avatars (incarnations), a lion and a boar.

Opposite the temple are two smaller structures,
Devi Mandap
and
Varaha Mandap
. The latter is an open sandstone pavilion on a high platform with 14 pillars supporting a high pyramidal roof with a flat ceiling carved with lovely lotus designs. A large stone sculpture of Varaha, the incarnation of Vishnu as the boar, dominates the space. Varaha’s polished monolithic body is carved with hundreds of tiny Brahmanical gods and goddesses.

At the northeastern end of the Western Group complex, a number of magnificent temples are found in proximity to one another. Thought to have been built between
A.D.
1017 and 1029, elegantly proportioned
Kandariya Mahadev Temple
is considered the finest temple in Khajuraho, with 872 statues adorning the interior and exterior. Within niches around the temple are images of Ganesh and the seven mother goddesses or
Sapta Matrikas.
Again, among the sculptures of Shiva and the other deities is a profusion of female figures engaged in daily activities made lovely by the sheer exuberance of the sculptural technique: A woman stretches, another plays with a ball, another admires her reflection in a mirror. You won’t have to search too hard to find fascinating erotic panels; kissing, caressing couples are depicted with their bodies entwined in blissful union, while others, sometimes in groups of three or four, engage in more lascivious activities. To enter the temple building, you pass through the beautiful entrance
toran;
sculpted from a single piece of stone, this is a floral garland that stems from the mouths of
makaras,
ever-watchful mythical crocodiles, and is carried across the doorway by flying nymphs. Within the temple, walls are covered with exquisite carvings: Don’t forget to look upward to appreciate the sculpted flower and leaf motifs of the ceilings. There’s a Shiva lingam deep within the
garbha griha,
or “womb chamber”; devotees today place flowers on and around the lingam.

Next to Kandariya Mahadev Temple is small
Mahadev Shrine,
which features a sculpted figure of what is thought to be the emblem of the Chandela dynasty, a raging lion fighting with a kneeling figure. Alongside it is
Devi Jagadambi Temple
—note the graceful woman who stands half naked as she interrupts her bath, possibly to catch a glimpse of Shiva’s wedding procession. The southern wall includes a panel with a woman climbing up her lover’s stout, standing body so that she can kiss him passionately. Although originally dedicated to Vishnu, the temple now houses a large image of Devi Jagadambi, the goddess of the universe, also known as Kali, one of the avatars of Shiva’s divine consort. In both this and nearby
Chitragupta
Temple
, images of Parvati and Shiva in the throes of amorous passion are symbolic of the “cosmic union that makes the world go round.” Chitragupta, which was poorly renovated by the Maharaja of Chattarpur, is dedicated to Surya, the sun god; the relief carving around the entrance is the temple’s highlight. Within the temple is the figure of Surya riding his sun chariot across the eternal sky.