An Architectural Marvel

ABOUT KHAJURAHO

Being located in present-day Chattarpur districts in Madhya Pradesh, The Khajuraho Temples date back to the Chandela Dynasty, which was responsible for the construction of the temples around 1000 AD or before. In between, Mahmud Ghazni had tried to attack the area during his raid of Kalinjar but his raid was unsuccessful. Later, I believe Qutub-Ud-Din Aibak also conquered this region. But no damage was done to these parts because of the same. Aurangzeb never eyeing this region also helped in keeping this site intact through time. The fact that it is built on a foundation of granite has helped protect it from natural disasters, over the centuries. Originally, a set of 85 temples, I think the count stands at 12 or so. It was situated in a date palm plantation area, initially. That’s how it gets the name "Khajuraho".

MY EXPERIENCE

I took a guided tour here, as I had little time and this is something I wasn’t too familiar with. I think that worked out pretty well this time.

3 Main Temples:

1] The main 3 temples are - the Lakshmana Burman temple of the god Vishnu. It also has most of the earliest architecture intact. Then, there is a Shiva Temple, which is relatively more modern. Also, there is a Vishnu temple which is later converted into a Parvati temple. These 3 best describe the architectural works of Khajuraho.

A] The Lakshmana temple of god Vishnu is the one with the most intricacies. There is a huge variety of carvings on the outside walls of the temple - Ranging from sexual acts with humans and animals, humans in various stages of their life and scenarios, war and preparation of war, gods, goddesses, demons, chamunda, dragon signifying conflict between mind and heart, various animals and their use.

The interior of the temple has a place for parikrama, with a place for dancers at the entrance followed by the pedestal for the main monument of the god. The temple walls are thick with multi-layers and a gap for air to flow in between, allowing for cooling. There is also a provision to dissipate heat by construction inside. You can feel the dissipating heat if you put your hand close to the construct.

Many of the god/goddess depictions are unique with multiple heads, limbs, rare combinations (combination of multiple gods and unknown variant depictions) and multiple lesser-known vahanas also shown.

B] There is a Shiva temple where, in addition to the recurring themes of the Lakshmana temple, additional geometrical shapes and, mesh-like designs with alternating squares open/solid can be seen. Even blank portions are introduced in this monument, this structure being more modern. More depiction of normal human behaviour and happenings before wars.

The interior of the temple has a similar structure to Lakshmana temple, which is older. Here, instead of Parikrama, we have a place for Havan in front of the monument.

C] The 3rd main temple is that of Parvati, originally a Vishnu temple. The interior and most of the exterior sculptures are similar. In addition to the mesh-like designs introduced in the Shiva temple, it also has some floral designs/patterns.

Many of the temples have the 3 main gods Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva shown doing something over the entrance to the pedestal on which the idol is kept. It could also be a slightly different combination of gods sometimes.

The carvings are very fine and capture great materialistic and emotive detail unlike anything else I have seen. I found myself in awe of what I witnessed and in the throes of laughter or surprise, on the other hand, there is often no correlation between adjacent sculptures. One could be related to gods and goddesses. The next one could be some very explicit sexual activity, shown to the last detail. All next to each other. I think the architects and sculptors were moody. Only God knows!