Editing Khajuraho Group of Monuments (section)

=== Architecture of the temples ===
[[File:Plan of Kandariya Mahadeva temple.jpg|thumb|360px|left|The layout plan of Kandariya Mahadeva Temple. It uses the 64 pada grid design. Smaller Khajuraho temples use the 9, 16, 36 or 49 grid mandala plan.<ref name=mmnagara>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |date=April–June 1979 |title=Maṇḍala and Practice in Nāgara Architecture in North India |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=99 |issue=2 |pages=204–219 |doi=10.2307/602657 |jstor=602657}}</ref>]]
Khajuraho temples, like almost all Hindu temple designs, follow a grid geometrical design called ''vastu-purusha-mandala''.<ref name=mmgeometry>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael |date=1983 |title=Geometry and Measure in Indian Temple Plans: Rectangular Temples |journal=Artibus Asiae |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=266–296 |doi=10.2307/3249613 |jstor=3249613}}</ref> This design plan has three important components - ''Mandala'' means circle, ''Purusha'' is universal essence at the core of Hindu tradition, while ''Vastu'' means the dwelling structure.<ref name=sl6869>Susan Lewandowski, The Hindu Temple in South India, in Buildings and Society: Essays on the Social Development of the Built Environment, Anthony D. King (Editor), ISBN 978-0710202345, Routledge, pp 68-69</ref>

The design lays out a Hindu temple in a symmetrical, concentrically layered, self-repeating structure around the core of the temple called garbhagriya, where the abstract principle Purusha and the primary deity of the temple dwell. The shikhara, or spire, of the temple rises above the garbhagriya. This symmetry and structure in design is derived from central beliefs, myths, cardinality and mathematical principles.<ref>Stella Kramrisch (1976), The Hindu Temple Volume 1, ISBN 81-208-0223-3</ref>

The circle of mandala circumscribe the square. The square is considered divine for its perfection and as a symbolic product of knowledge and human thought, while circle is considered earthly, human and observed in everyday life (moon, sun, horizon, water drop, rainbow). Each supports the other.<ref name=stellakvol1>[[Stella Kramrisch]], The Hindu Temple, Vol 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0222-3</ref> The square is divided into perfect 64 sub-squares called padas.<ref name=mmgeometry />

Most Khajuraho temples deploy the 8x8 (64) padas grid Manduka Vastupurushamandala, with pitha mandala the square grid incorporated in the design of the spires.<ref name=mmnagara/> The primary deity or lingas are located in the grid’s Brahma padas.

{{multiple image
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 | footer = Khajuraho temples use the 8x8 (64) Vastupurusamandala Manduka grid layout plan (left) found in [[Hindu temple]]s. Above the temple’s brahma padas is a Shikhara (Vimana or Spire) that rises symmetrically above the central core, typically in a circles and turning-squares concentric layering design (right) that flows from one to the other as it rises towards the sky.<ref name=stellakvol1/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |date=March 2006 |title=Mountain Temples and Temple-Mountains: Masrur |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=26–49 |doi=10.2307/25068237 |jstor=25068237}}</ref>
 | image1 = 64 grid Manduka design Hindu Temple Floor Plan Vastu Purusa Mandala Ancient Architecture.svg
 | image2 = Hindu temple Spire design principle concentric circles squares Vastu Purusa Mandala without label.svg
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The architecture is symbolic and reflects the central Hindu beliefs through its form, structure and arrangement of its parts.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Meister |first=Michael W. |date=Autumn 1986 |title=On the Development of a Morphology for a Symbolic Architecture: India |journal=RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics |publisher=Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology |issue=12 |pages=33–50 |jstor=20166752}}</ref> The mandapas as well as the arts are arranged in the Khajuraho temples in a symmetric repeating patterns, even though each image or sculpture is distinctive in its own way. The relative placement of the images are not random but together they express ideas, just like connected words form sentences and paragraphs to compose ideas.<ref>Devangana Desai, ''Khajuraho'', Oxford University Press Paperback (Sixth impression 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-565643-5</ref> This fractal pattern that is common in Hindu temples.<ref>Rian et al (2007), Fractal geometry as the synthesis of Hindu cosmology in Kandariya Mahadev Temple, Khajuraho, Building and Environment, Vol 42, Issue 12, pp 4093-4107, {{doi|10.1016/j.buildenv.2007.01.028}}</ref> Various statues and panels have inscriptions. Many of the inscriptions on the temple walls are poems with double meanings, something that the complex structure of Sanskrit allows in creative compositions.<ref name=ddesai7>Devangana Desai (1996), [http://www.learn.columbia.edu/indianart/pdf/khajuraho_desai.pdf Chapter 7 - Puns and Enigmatic Language in Sculpture] in The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho, Project for Indian Cultural Studies, Columbia University Archives</ref>

All Khajuraho temples, except one, face sunrise, and the entrance for the devotee is this east side.

{{multiple image
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 | footer = An illustration of Khajuraho temple Spires (Shikhara, Vimana) built using concentric circle and rotating-squares principle. Four spires (left) are shown above, while the inside view of one Shikara ceiling (right) shows the symmetric layout.
 | image1 = India-5716 - Flickr - archer10 (Dennis).jpg
 | image2 = A Khajuraho Temple ceiling design.jpg
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Above the vastu-purusha-mandala of each temple is a superstructure with a dome called ''Shikhara'' (or ''Vimana'', Spire).<ref name=sl6869/> Variations in spire design come from variation in degrees turned for the squares. The temple Shikhara, in some literature, is linked to mount Kailash or Meru, the mythical abode of the gods.<ref name=stellakvol1/>

In each temple, the central space typically is surrounded by an ambulatory for the pilgrim to walk around and ritually circumambulate the Purusa and the [[Portal:Main|main]] deity.<ref name=stellakvol1/> The pillars, walls and ceilings around the space, as well as outside have highly ornate carvings or images of the four just and necessary pursuits of life - kama, artha, dharma and moksa. This clockwise walk around is called ''pradakshina''.<ref name=sl6869/>

Larger Khajuraho temples also have pillared halls called mandapa. One near the entrance, on the east side, serves as the waiting room for pilgrims and devotees. The mandapas are also arranged by principles of symmetry, grids and mathematical precision. This use of same underlying architectural principle is common in Hindu temples found all over India.<ref name="Trivedi, K. 1989">Trivedi, K. (1989). Hindu temples: models of a fractal universe. The Visual Computer, 5(4), 243-258</ref> Each Khajuraho temple is distinctly carved yet also repeating the central common principles in almost all Hindu temples, one which Susan Lewandowski refers to as “an organism of repeating cells”.<ref name=susanlchap4>Susan Lewandowski, The Hindu Temple in South India, in Buildings and Society: Essays on the Social Development of the Built Environment, Anthony D. King (Editor), ISBN 978-0710202345, Routledge, Chapter 4</ref>