Khajuraho Temples

For The Sunday Tribune | August 26, 1962

Khajuraho, once the flourish ing capital of the Chandellas, is today a little village in the Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Except for its 20 odd, a thousand-year old temples, it is wholly insignificant – almost unknown. It has no official latitude, no longitude, no height above sea level.

About 50 miles to the east of Jhansi lies Harpalpur, the rail terminal for Khajuraho. From there the temples are another 60 miles by bus. A trip by road – 370 miles from Delhi – is much more enjoyable. One can spend pleasant days at Agra, Gwalior and Jhansi – all rich in history – on the way. There is a safe ferry on the Betwa river, seven miles beyond Jhansi. The road passes through some of the most beautiful countryside of Central India – open landscape broken by low wooded hills and dotted with lakes and tanks of every description. One might with some justification call it the lake district of India.

Chattarpur, 35 miles short of the temples was once the capital of a quaint little State.

Great Patrons

The Chandellas seem to have been great patrons of art. During the 100 years between 950 A.D. and 1050 A.D. when their power was at its zenith scores of temples were put up at Khajuraho. It is said that there were over 80 of these edifices. Today hardly two dozen remain. Yet enough remains to show the ability of their architects and the skill of their sculptors. Graceful in proportion the monuments are profusely covered within and without – all done with an abandon and a sense of jov.

Too much attention has been paid perhaps to the eroticism in Khaturaho sculpture, even to the point of ignoring much else that is worthy of attention. Tha temples offer a veritable social history of the Chandella period, beautifully carved in stone friezes – processions of kings and commoners; scenes of hunting and war; dancers and musicians; all done by the master craftsmen of the Chandella kings.

The Khajuraho temples are also masterpieces of architecture. Ascending in graduated heights they sweep up to the lofty "Shikhara" of the sanctum, suggestive of the rising peaks of a mountain range converging on to the highest point. The rising roof with the subsidiary "Shikharas" signifies "an impatient and restless upward surge which seems to lend to the entire monument a striking quality of aspiring verticalism." This repeatedly emphasised verticality is so perfectly balanced with the horizontal that one wonders at the mastery over technique of the Khajuraho architects.

The world of Khajuraho is an enthralling world. These temples represent "a moment of perfect utterance" in the history of the country's temple architecture. To quote Fergusson they are "the most beautiful in form. as well as the most elegant in detail of any of the temples now standing in India."