Khajuraho, Kama Sutra frozen in Stone by Love (continued)

By Josephine Acosta Pasricha, Ph. D

These soaring vertical spires are beautifully balanced by two or three horizontal bands of high and low reliefs, turning and twisting around the walls, inside and outside the temples. The monotony of the walls is relived by erotic Kama Sutra sculpture, placed in prominent architectural parts, side by side with icons, gods and goddesses. The entire house and body of god vibrates with Kama Sutra eroticism. But the decorative wall sculpture itself revels as a preoccupation with ascension. The lowest sculptures are most frenetic of activity; mounting towards calmer and calmer figures, until the final crowning glory of peace and tranquility is at the topmost. Just as it shows the dynamics of sex, it also connotes the ascent from the physical level to the spiritual level. Shanti. Shanti. Shanti.

The Kajuraho sculptures, which are Kama Sutra positions frozen in stone, can be divided into six groups:

1. Beautiful maidens, exposing nudity and betraying suggestions. The most classic is a lonely lady in the Lakshmana temple, exhibiting nail-marks on her breasts and armpits. The most common is a nymph gently supporting one breast with a palm, her eyes lost in seductive indulgence.

2. Simple Mithuna Couples, standing or sitting side by side while they embrace each other, hold hands or offer flowers.

3. Couples in a variety of embrace and styles of kissing.

4. Rioting figures in a vivid spectacle of normal and less normal postures.

5. Male and female figures in fantastic acrobatic poses. There is a scene of a man standing on his head. There is another scene of a woman standing on her head.

6. Humana beings and animals, like beasts, bears, asses, mares, dogs, deer, serpent, etc.

There are many reasons given for the presence of the erotic Kama Sutra imagery in the Khajuraho temples. They range from the ridiculous to the sublime. Among them are the following:

1. To protect the temples from lightning, thunder and the evil eye

2. To attract the common man to the house of god

3. To test the concentration of the devotee, before he is given entry into the temples

4. As an open book on erotics, an encyclopedia of the Kama Sutra illustrated in stone, and a means of sex education

5. As a satire to the religious rites and erotic practices of the supposedly ascetic

6. As a demonstration of the Tantric Doctrine, emphasizing woman as the dominant principle of creation and the senses as the equal of spirit so that their imaginative indulgence can lead to heaven.

7. As a religious expression of the mystical union of man and woman, man and god, Atman and Brahman.

The Khajuraho sculptures, like the book of Kama Sutra, do not portray only erotics. They also bring into relief various aspects of life, such as love and hatred, happiness and sorrow, manners and habits, cosmetics and coiffures, clothes and ornaments, games and amusements, industries and professions, furniture and utensils, arts and craft, religion and belief.

For the common layman, or art critic and even for a cultural studies scholar, the Khajuraho temples and sculptures would be a highly aesthetic and truly mature conception. The temples have intrinsic harmony, rhythm and unity. The sculptures throb with life, executed with consummate skill and with no false modesty. They make a fascinating study of the human body from a variety of angles – fine profiles, three fourth flexions and back views.

Figures display distinctive physical beauty – for example the classic oval face of beauty with its round chin, prominent nose and lips, sharply carved eyes and eyebrows.

The whole universe in Khajuraho, the Kama Sutra in sculpture, from Brahman to the smallest worm, is based on the union between male and female, light and darkness, the yang and the yin.

Why then should one not read and reread, interpret and mediate the Khajuraho sculptures and the Kama Sutra, sex frozen in stone and text, by love and romance, throughout all these centuries?

About the Author

Pasricha, Josephine Acosta

Doctor of Philosophy in Literature 2000, summa cum laude, University of Santo Tomas; Master of Arts in Literature 1976, benemeritus, University of Santo Tomas; Bachelor of Philosophy 1964, cum laude, University of Santo Tomas; Women Managers in Business Organization (WMBO) 1988 Asian Institute of Management; Ford Foundation Research Fellow, 1976-1977, University of Delhi, India; special lecturer on Philosophy, Humanities, Aesthetics, Hermeneutics, Cultural Studies, Feminism, Empowerment of Women and Children, Oriental Arts and Culture, the Case method of teaching and Game theory, both in the undergraduate and graduate levels