Indian Cities & Destinations - Comprehensive guide to
cultural heritage of India where you discover art & craft, dances,
music, costumes, and languages of India.
Khajuraho,
which has lent its name to a complex of exquisite Hindu and Jain temples, is
a small town located amidst the forested plains of Bundelkhand in
north-central Madhya Pradesh. The beautiful temples that dot
Khajuraho are believed to have been built by the mighty Chandela rulers in
the 9th and 10th century AD. The engravings on these temples are highly
sensual and erotic that depict in graceful forms intimate scenes of the
whole range of human emotions and relationships.
These
sculptures congeal in stone a lyrical paean to love and passion and reflect
the Chandela dynasty's immense appreciation for art.
Architecturally,
the temples are built in the north Indian Nagara style. The sculptor's fine
skill and a sense of imagination have given form to human emotion in the
form of spiritual and physical love. Every facade-wall, window, pillar, and
ceiling-is carved with figures of mythical and historical origins,
and while many of these depict full-breasted, girdle-waisted women in forms
of innocent play, they also depict carnal love.
In
all 85 temples were built in Khajuraho, but only 22 are left to speak of the
grandeur of conception of the rulers and architects of the day. The basic
ground plan of the temples of Khajuraho is almost a textbook example of
Hindu temple architecture consisting of four compartments: an entrance porch
(ardhamandap), the vestibule (antarala) and the sanctum sanctorum
(garbhagriha). In some of the large temples an extra mandap with lateral
transepts is added for size and splendour, converting it into a large
assembly hall. The temples rest on a risen open platform, a distinctive
feature of the Khajuraho temples, with subsidiary shrines at the four
corners of the platform in the bigger temples.
The architectural
beauty of the the exquisite sculptures at Khajuraho temples are unlike any
other in India. Among the vast number of temple, Khajuraho temple holds a
special place for its intricately thematic carvings on the stones. Build by
Chandela Rajputs, a tribal dynasty ruler who ruled this part of India from
the tenth to the twelfth centuries.
 Major
Attractions of Khajuraho |
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Chausath Yogini Temple : In spite of its
uncouth appearance and rugged bareness, it possesses an elemental strength
and reveals some basic traits of the Khajuraho style, such as a lofty
platform and a jangha (wall ) divided into two registers of all the yogini
temples in India, this is the only temple at Khajuraho, which is not
oriented due north south but is oriented northeast to southwest. This temple
has many notable features. While most of the Khajuraho temples are made of a
fine variety of buff or pink sandstone, this is the only temple at the site,
which is made entirely of granite. Further, this structure is extremely
simple in plan and design, with hardly any carvings or ornaments and has no
pretensions for architectural elegance.
Dance & Festivals of Khajuraho : It is a cultural
festival for the celebration of the Indian classical dance and music,
believed to have basically originated in the Hindu temples. The festival is
typical of a new breed of event, sited at ornate ancient temples to attract
visitors by combining tourism with culture. Khajuraho Festival of Dances,
organised by Eicher and Madhya Pradesh Kala Parishad, draws the best
classical dancers in the country every year, who perform against the
spectacular backdrop of the floodlit temples. In a setting where the earthly
and the divine create perfect harmony, it is a spectacular event that
celebrates the pure magic of the rich classical dance traditions of India.
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