Khajuraho Group of Monuments

Khajuraho Group of Monuments

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Cultural: i, iii
Reference	240
Inscription	1986 (10th session)

Khajuraho (Template:Lang-hi) is a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, located in Chhatarpur District, about 385 miles (620 kilometres) southeast of Delhi, the capital city of India. One of the most popular tourist destinations in India, Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculpture. The Khajuraho group of monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is considered to be one of the "seven wonders" of India.

The name Khajuraho, ancient "Kharjuravahaka", is derived from the Sanskrit word kharjur meaning date palm.

History

In the twenty-seventh century of Kali yuga the Mlechcha invaders started attacking North India some Bargujar Rajputs moved towards east to central India, they ruled over North-Eastern region of Rajasthan called Dhundhar and were referred to as Dhundhel/Dhundhela in ancient times, for the region they governed. Later on they called themselves Bundelas and Chandelas those who were in the ruling class having gotra Kashyap were definitely all Bargujars they were vassals of Gurjara - Pratihara empire of North India which lasted from 500 C.E. to 1300 C.E. and was at its peak when major monuments were built. The Bargujars also built the Kalinjar fort and Neelkanth Mahadev temple similar to one at Sariska National Park and Baroli, being Shiva worshipers. The city was the cultural capital of Chandela Rajputs, a Hindu dynasty that ruled this part of India from the 10th to the 12th centuries. Political capital of Chandelas was Kalinjar. The Khajuraho temples were built over a span of 200 years, from 950 to 1150. The Chandela capital was moved to Mahoba after this time, but Khajuraho continued to flourish for some time. Khajuraho has no forts because the Chandel Kings never lived in their cultural capital.

The whole area was enclosed by a wall with eight gates, each flanked by two golden palm trees. There were originally over 80 Hindu temples, of which only 25 now stand in a reasonable state of preservation, scattered over an area of about 8 square miles (21 km²).

The temples of Khajuraho suffered destruction by early Muslim invaders between c. 1100-1400 AD as various disfigured statues at the temple complex attest. Today, the temples serve as fine examples of Indian architectural styles that have gained popularity due to their explicit depiction of the traditional way of sexual life during medieval times. Locals living in the Khajuraho village always knew about and kept up the temples as best as they could. They were pointed out to an English man in late 19th century and the jungles had taken a toll on all of the monuments.

Geography

Khajuraho is located at . It has an average elevation of 283 metres (928 feet).

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, Khajuraho had a population of 19,282. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Khajuraho has an average literacy rate of 53%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 62%, and female literacy is 43%. In Khajuraho, 19% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Architecture

The Khajuraho temples, constructed with spiral superstructures, adhere to a northern Indian shikhara temple style and often to a Panchayatana plan or layout. A few of the temples are dedicated to the Jain pantheon and the rest to Hindu deities - to God's Trio, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and various Devi forms, such as the Devi Jagadambi temple. A Panchayatana temple had four subordinate shrines on four corners and the main shrine in the center of the podium, which comprises their base. The temples are grouped into three geographical divisions: western, eastern and southern.

With a graded rise secondary shikharas (spires) cluster to create an appropriate base for the main shikhara over the sanctum. Kandariya Mahadeva, one of the most accomplished temples of the Western group, comprises eighty-four shikharas, the main being 116 feet from the ground level.

The Khajuraho temples are made of sandstone, they didn't use mortar the stones were put together with mortise and tenon joints and they were held in place by gravity. This form of construction requires very precise joints. The columns and architraves were built with megaliths that weighed up to 20 tons.

Lakshmana temple at Khajuraho, a panchayatana temple. Two of the four secondary shrines can be seen. Another view

These shikharas – subordinate and main – attribute to the Khajuraho temples their unique splendor and special character. With a graded rise of these shikharas from over the ardhamandapa, porch, to mandapa, assembly hall, mahamandapa, principal assembly hall, antarala, vestibule, and garbhagriha, sanctum sanctorum, the Khajuraho temples attain the form and glory of gradually rising Himalayan peaks. These temples of Khajuraho have sculptures that look very realistic and are studied even today.

The Saraswati temple on the campus of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India is modeled after the Khajuraho temple.

Chronology

The temples have been assigned the following historical sequence by Dr. Kanhaiyalal Agrawal.

Sequence	Modern name	Original Deity	Note
1	Chausath Yogini	64 Yoginis	Est 9th c.
2	Brahma	Vishnu	Eastern group
3	Lalgun Mahadev	Shiva	Contemp to 2
4	Matangeshwar	Siva	In active worship
5	Varaha	Varaha
6	Lakshman	Vaikuntha Vishnu	Lakshavarma Inscription
7	Parshvanath	Adinath	Pahil inscription 954 AD, Jain Compound
8	Vishvanath	Shiva	Dhanga inscription Sam 1059
9	Devi Jagadambi	Initially Vishnu but today Parvati
10	Chitragupta	Surya
11	Kandariya Mahadeva	Shiva	Largest
12	Vamana	Vamana	Eastern Group
13	Adinath	Jina	Jain compound
14	Jawari	Vishnu	Eastern group
15	Chaturbhuja	Vishnu	Southern
16	Duladev	Shiva	South end
17	Ghantai	Jina	Only some columns remaining

The statues and carvings of Khajuraho

The Khajuraho temples do not contain sexual or erotic art inside the temple or near the deities; however, some external carvings bear erotic art. Also, some of the temples that have two layers of walls have small erotic carvings on the outside of the inner wall. There are many interpretations of the erotic carvings. They portray that, for seeing the deity, one must leave his or her sexual desires outside the temple. They also show that divinity, such as the deities of the temples, is pure like the atman, which is not affected by sexual desires and other characteristics of the physical body. It has been suggested that these suggest tantric sexual practices. Meanwhile, the external curvature and carvings of the temples depict humans, human bodies, and the changes that occur in human bodies, as well as facts of life. Some 10% of the carvings contain sexual themes; those reportedly do not show deities, they show sexual activities between people. The rest depict the everyday life of the common Indian of the time when the carvings were made, and of various activities of other beings. For example, those depictions show women putting on makeup, musicians, potters, farmers, and other folks. Those mundane scenes are all at some distance from the temple deities. A common misconception is that, since the old structures with carvings in Khajuraho are temples, the carvings depict sex between deities.

Another perspective of these carvings is presented by James McConnachie. In his history of the Kamasutra, McConnachie describes the zesty 10% of the Khajuraho sculpture as "the apogee of erotic art": "Twisting, broad-hipped and high breasted nymphs display their generously contoured and bejewelled bodies on exquisitely worked exterior wall panels. These fleshy apsaras run riot across the surface of the stone, putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games, dancing, and endlessly knotting and unknotting their girdles....Beside the heavenly nymphs are serried ranks of griffins, guardian deities and, most notoriously, extravagantly interlocked maithunas, or lovemaking couples."

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  Chaturbuj Temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Lakshman temple
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  Outside wall of one of the temples

While the sexual nature of these carvings have caused the site to be referred to as the Kamasutra temple, they do not illustrate the meticulously described positions. Neither do they express the philosophy of Vatsyayana's famous sutra. As "a strange union of Tantrism and fertility motifs, with a heavy dose of magic" they belie a document which focuses on pleasure rather than procreation. That is, fertility is moot.

Dr. Devangana Desai points out that there is a misunderstanding regarding representation of homosexuality in Khajuraho sculptures. It is not depicted in Khajuraho sculptures. There are two sculptures mistaken as gay figures-

1. The much talked about scene, often misunderstood as depicting lesbian love, is the head-down sculpture on the north wall of the Vishvanatha temple of the site. The top figure whose back is seen in the panel looks like a woman, but is actually a man, whose genitals can be seen from below. The figure is mistaken for a woman because of the hair tied in a bun at the back, which was a male hair style prevalent in medieval India.

2. The other, often misunderstood sculpture is on the south wall of the Devi Jagadamba temple. Here a bearded Shaiva (Kapalika) ascetic threatens a nude Kshapanaka monk to join his religious order, by holding his organ and raising his other hand to hit him. The monk is shown with folded hands as if surrendering. These figures represent two characters of the allegorical play Prabodhachandrodaya, staged in the Khajuraho region in the 11th century. There is no gay relationship involved in the sculptural scene.

The strategically placed sculptures are "symbolical-magical diagrams, or yantras" designed to appease malevolent spirits. This alamkara (ornamentation) expresses sophisticated artistic transcendence over the natural; sexual images imply a virile, thus powerful, ruler.

Between 950 and 1150, the Chandela monarchs built these temples when the Tantric tradition may have been accepted. In olden days, before the Mughal conquests, when boys lived in hermitages, following brahmacharya until they became men, they could learn about the world and prepare themselves to become householders through examining these sculptures and the worldly desires they depicted.

While excavating Khajuraho Alex Evans a stone mason and sculptor recreated a stone sculpture under 4 feet that took about 60 days to carve. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. These temples would have required hundreds of highly trained sculptors.

Landscape

The Khajuraho temples are now set in a parkland landscape. When India gained independence from Britain in 1947 the landscape setting was semi-desert and scrub. The archaeological park now has something of the character of an English public park, with mown grass, rose beds and ornamental trees. This may be popular with visitors but has no relationship with the historic landscape at the time the temples were built.

The development of landscape archaeology as an academic discipline raises questions concerning the earlier landscape of Khajuraho and the original relationship between the temple complex and the surrounding area. There are no records of what the original landscape might have been, but it is known that a large community of priests used the temple complex and that Indian gardens in the tenth century were predominantly tree gardens. They did not have lawns or herbaceous flowering plants.

Tourism

Khajuraho temple complex offers a well made light and sound show every evening. The first show is in English language and the second one in Hindi. The show is about an hour long and covers the history, philosophy and the art of sculpting of these temples. It is held in the open lawns in the temple complex.

Recent Discovery

Archaeological Survey of India has recently started dig on a mound where perhaps the largest underground temple in Khajuraho has been unearthed. The dig will take at least a couple of years to conclude.

See also

• Kandariya Mahadeva
• Hemvati
• Kalinjar
• Beejamandal
• Jain temples of Khajuraho
• List of megalithic sites
• Madhya Pradesh

References

Central India Travel Guide - Khajuraho

Further reading

• Phani Kant Mishra, Khajuraho: With Latest Discoveries, Sundeep Prakashan (2001) ISBN 8175741015
• Devangana Desai, The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho, Franco-Indian Research P. Ltd. (1996) ISBN 81-900184-1-8
• Devangana Desai, Khajuraho, Oxford University Press Paperback (Sixth impression 2005) ISBN 978-0-19-565643-5

External links

• UNESCO World Heritage Site listing
• Khajuraho Temple Sculpture and Carvings Research Project & Photo Exhibition
• Photos about Khajuraho in the website of Italian writer Manuel Olivares
• Gallery of Khajuraho photos
• 100 photos 1280x960 of Khajuraho
• Template:Wikitravel
• Beauty of Khajuraho Temples
• Photos of the Khajuraho temple complex
• The Facts of Khajuraho