Khajuraho is a small humble village in the
Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh in North Central India.
The village is limited to a cluster of mud houses, a
small-polluted lake, and dry arid land that grows only spinach
and potatoes. The only river is quite far and the business
center is a town away. The existing airport has a short runway
and no lights for night landing. Thus, if you fly in the
morning, decide to stay overnight in any of two deluxe hotels,
you must be prepared to eat spinach and potatoes – every day’s
plat du jour.
Yet Khajuraho, with its Kama Sutra in
sculpture, used to be the glorious capital of the Chandella
Rajputs of Budelkhand, from the ninth to the 13th
century. It was the center of religious and political activity,
artistic and cultural studies. It witnessed the culmination of
Indo Aryan genius in architecture and sculpture.
Of the 85 temples build from 950 CE to 1050
CE in Khajuraho, only 30 have withstood the centuries of
neglect.
The temples can be divided into three
groups.
Among the western group Chaunsaath Yogini
is the oldest; Kandariya Mahadeva is the largest and Devi
Lagadamba is the most erotic. Then, there are Chitragupta,
Visvanatha, Nandi, Parvati, Lakshmaana, Matangesvara, Vrah, etc.
Among the eastern group are the three Hindu
temples of Brahma, Vamana, and Javari; and three Jain shrines of
Ghantai, Adinatha and Parsvanatha.
Among the southern group are Duladeo and
Chaturbhuj. Some temples are monumental and artistic. Others are
tiny and stereotyped.
Each temple stands on a high and solid
platform without the customary enclosure. The larger shrines
have a central sanctuary for the honored god and four smaller
sanctuaries for lesser deities at the four corners of the
platform. The entrance is approached by a steep flight of steps.
The floor plan is like a Christian cross,
with a set of arms. The visitor enters through a portico called
ardhamandapa; passes through a doorway with intricate carving;
reaches an assembly hall called mandapa; crosses a vestibule
called antarala; walks around an ambulatory or processional
passage called the garbhagriha.
The most beautiful element of the Khajuraho
temples is the shikara – a curvilinear center spire surrounded
by miniature pyramidal spires, suggestive of the lingam or
penis, or the fertility symbol of the Lord Shiva, or the
Buddhist stupa. The visitor feels the heavenward thrust, as
suggested by the masses of small spires, pushing each other
upward like the Himalayan peaks, progressing to higher and
higher stages until the culminating highest finial is reached.
Different parts of the temples also have individual roofs; the
tallest over the vimana and the shortest over the portico.
This sense of thrust is supposed to
symbolize how the faithful can be led from plain humanity to a
progressive participation with divinity. When the worshipper
enters the temple, he has to proceed from one portion to
another, by progressing from one floor area to the other, until
the enshrined idol is reached on a much higher level.
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