20th-21st January: The medieval temples of Khajuraho

20th January

After breakfast in the peaceful garden of the hotel, we walked to the western group of temples. We paid the entrance fee (25 times the cost for Indians) and rented an audio guide. Security guards were looking carefully through bags but they seemed more interested in cigarettes than anything else. They watched John with great suspicion.

There are five main temples in the western group: Lakshmana, dedicated to Vishnu and completed around AD954; Kandariya-Mahadev, dedicated to Shiva, which is the largest temple and features 872 statues of 1m high; Devi Jagadamba, dedicated to Kali; Chitragupta, dedicated to sun god Surya; and Vishvanath, dedicated to Shiva. Inside Varaha, a small shrine facing Lakshmana Temple, was an impressive and finely-carved sandstone sculpture of Vishnu's boar incarnation, dating from 900 AD. A similar shrine holding a beautiful sculpture of Nandi, Shiva's bull, faced Vishvanath Temple.

Lakshmana temple on the right

Vishnu's boar avatar

Nandi and John (and the bright yellow audio guide)

The temples were built by the Chandelas, who were regularly at war (they were finally defeated by the Muslims in the 16th century). Besides their Indo-Aryan architecture, the most interesting features of the temples, and what made them famous, are the finely carved sculptures. In addition to representations of war scenes (particularly on the Lakshmana Temple), gods, goddesses, and animals both real and mythical, the temples boast fine sculptures of sensuous heavenly nymphs (surasundari). Their sensuality stemmed from their finely chiseled features, their voluptuous forms protected only by revealing clothing, and their seductively swaying hips. These beautiful creatures often appeared to be removing a thorn from their feet, applying make-up, gently squeezing the water out of their long hair after a bath, or posing for the sculptor.

Lakshmana temple

The enormous Kandariya-Mahadev temple

A marble shivaling

A later temple with Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu architecture

The temples are also famous for the presence of erotic carvings. Naughty couples are represented all around the temples (solo acts and trios also feature), but the most suggestive sculptures have been placed on the outside of the temple at the junction of the sanctuary, where the statue of the god lives, and the room from which devotees come to worship. As we understood, this was used to symbolise in Tantra the union between the devotees and the god.

With a little help from their friends

Voyeuristic elephant

More acrobatics

Only the Matangesvara, just outside of the western group enclosure, is still an active temple. Although we were not able to see it, it is supposed to hold a 2.5m-high Lingam (phallic image of Shiva).

Matangesvara temple

The audio guide was very good, with a narrator whose English accent was easy to understand. It was great fun was to hear his over-the top imitation of the British explorer who discovered the temples and was shocked by the "sexual sculptures on temples". The same explorer would probably be appalled by the number of touts selling books on the kama sutra or very suggestive key-chains.

The visit of the temples took us a good 3 hours, as we listened carefully to the explanations and took the time to look at the temples.  We then had lunch at Raja's Cafe, which was very conveniently located in front of the temples' entrance and offered a great view over the whole complex. The cafe was clearly popular with tourists, as quite a few were sitting on the terrace when we arrived. The food was quite tasty which explained the cafe's popularity.

We thought about going to the eastern group of temples that afternoon, but finally decided otherwise as the risk of being templed out was pretty high. We thus spent most of the afternoon on the internet. The wifi was not particularly reliable in the hotel so we went to an internet cafe instead. We managed to upload a few posts on the blog and to book hotels for the remaining weeks in India.

In the evening, we went back to Raja's Cafe for dinner and used their wifi. Unfortunately, we arrived slightly after sunset and realised that we would need to arrive earlier the next day, although the twilight view was still beautiful.

Temples at twilight

-----

21st January

On our way to the eastern group of temples, not far from the hotel, we met some kids who lived in the Old Village of Khajuraho, which is just right outside the modern part of the town. They told us that they would be glad to practice their English and accompany us around the temples. This proved really helpful as they knew the way better than us and took us through a few shortcuts. The oldest boy spoke quite good English and was very friendly; he stayed with us through the whole visit, while the other two quickly disappeared.

We passed the large statue of the Hanuman Temple by the road, and arrived at Vamana Temple a few minutes later. The temple was dedicated to the Dwarf incarnation of Vishnu (AD 1050-75). We had a walk around the temple to look at the statues before entering and remaining quite perplexed in front of the Dwarf statue. It was very quiet as there were no other tourists and no touts waiting by the entrance.

Vamana temple

The pot-bellied Dwarf incarnation of Vishnu

On our way to the Jain temples, which were further out of town, we stopped by the smaller Javari Temple just outside the old village. The kid then led us through the Old Village, showing us the Brahman district and his house. The Brahman area's white-washed walls were very bright and clean. Dalits (or Untouchables), as is the custom, lived outside the village. He showed us the fields just outside the village on which his family was growing rice for their private consumption. 

Javari temple

Entrance to Javari temple

Outskirts of the old village

Brahman part of town

Walking through the old town

Dalits' part of the old village

I was surprised by the number of schools around the Old Village. Only one of those schools is public and prices can be quite high for the private ones. We stopped by one of the schools where children of all castes were welcome. Inside, a group of kids were rehearsing dance moves in preparation for Republic Day (celebrating the day on which the Indian Constitution entered into force). 

School   

The Jain temples were inside an enclosure but there was no entrance fee. We started our tour with the largest temple in the enclosure, the Parsvanath Temple, which looked similar to the hindu temples in the western group. It featured very graceful nymphs, and in particular one removing a thorn from her foot. 

Parsvanath temple

Surasundari having a thorn removed from her foot

Inside the Jain temple

Shanti Nath was the newest temple, built a century ago, and it was still active. There were many statues inside, but the 4.5-m high Adinath statue particularly caught my attention. It reminded me of the bigger version that I had seen a few years ago in the South of India; on the way down from that temple, we had met a naked old man (Jain devotee) walking up the stairs to the statue. Apparently, this temple was affiliated to the same sect as we could see photos of naked worshippers on the various brochures scattered around the temple. We were unlucky not to meet any of them that day.

Shanti Nath temple

Inside Shanti Nath

Jain Tirthankara

No naked ascetics wandering around while we were there

It was then time for lunch and we thus walked back towards the modern part of Khajuraho. Our cheerful friend had apparently changed his mind, after reassuring us that he only wanted to practice his English, and asked us for money (to buy books for school). This was not very convincing (and we'd heard that this was a regular scam around there); we prefer to give to charity than to encourage kids to beg or tout on the streets.

We had decided to try the Italian restaurant for lunch, called Mediterraneo. The advertisement on the wall said that the chef had been trained in Rome, which apparently is a sign of quality. The reviews on tripadvisor were very good, so we decided to give it a go despite our skepticism. It was more expensive than other restaurants but the pizza and grilled vegetables that we ordered were tasty, so we did not regret it. Interestingly, the manager asked whether he could take a picture of us. We might appear on the menu, who knows?

We spent the afternoon relaxing, working on the blog, and organising the rest of the trip. We watched the sun set from Blue Sky Cafe, which has the finest view over the temples.  For dinner, we went to a restaurant in front of the hotel called Agrasen, but this was unfortunately not a good choice; only a couple of hours later we were not feeling very well. Thankfully we were not struck down with anything too unpleasant, but this is clearly a place to which I would not dream of returning.

Western temples at dusk