India Travel and Holiday Guide

Overview:

Once guarded by swaying date palm trees, which gave the city of Khajuraho its name, the city is a study in art and sculpture. Indeed, the temples form the centre of Khajuraho with its myriad graceful forms that continue to evoke shock, surprise, awe and admiration among a thousand other feelings.

An outstanding example of Indo-Aryan architecture, the art on the temple walls is an elegant combination of intricacy and simplicity. The city traces its origin to the 10th century when it was the bastion of the Chandela dynasty.

The Khajuraho of today is more familiar to today's monuments to commercialisation - hotels, restaurants and shops - signs of ordinary civilisation. The past with all its grandeur, in the form of the temples gaze benignly at a city that continues to thrive because of what its rulers gave it.

Of course, the city comes alive every year during the Dance Festival in March, when the maestros of classical dance, Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mohapatra and their disciples perform against the dramatic temple backdrop. Beyond doubt, Khajuraho is not an Indian destination you can afford to miss.


Population: About 7000

Climate: Khajuraho's climate is quite extreme, with drastic shifts in day and night temperatures along with minimal rainfall. Summers are a hot 45°C and winters pleasant at 27°C.

Main Language(s): Hindi and English

Time Zone: GMT + 05:30

Phone Area Code: 07686

Best Time To Visit: With summer too hot to be advised, winter is a good time to visit. As also March, which is when the annual Dance Festival takes place.

Places To Visit:

Temples:
Chandela architecture was obviously at its peak when the temples were built. Depicting scenes of gods and goddesses, valiant warriors, animals and people, the sculptures and carvings are often shown engaged in acts of love. This portrayal of sensuality and erotica, while awing some and shocking others, not once is vulgar. The beauty of this art in fact enhances the purity of temple art forms.

The temples are a series of towers each higher than the other, culminating in a soaring shikhara. The inner sanctum sanctorum is just as elaborately carved as the exterior. It is amazing that these blocks have simply been fitted together since at the time of being built, there was no mortar.

Western Group
The Western Group of Temples is the most elaborately carved of the three. The temples here are mentioned here in brief. The Lakshmi and Varaha Temple is dedicated to Lakshmi and the Varaha (boar) avtaar of Vishnu. The Lakshmana Temple, intricate in its workmanship; the Kandariya Mahadev, largest and architecturally the most perfect, where the interior has 872 spectacularly carved statues; the Mahadeva Temple is the smallest; the Devi Jagadamba Temple wasfirst dedicated to Vishnu, then Parvati and finally to Kali.

The Chitragupta Temple is dedicated to the Sun God, Surya, while the Vishwanath Temple is dedicated to Shiva and his faithful vehicle, Nandi the bull. The Matangesvara Temple, the only temple in this group, where worship continues, dedicated to Shiva and the Chausath Yogini Temple, presently in ruins and believed to be the oldest temple in Khajuraho.

Eastern Group
This group, other than housing the other temples also contains the Jain Temples. Of the attractions, there is the Parasvanath Temple, the largest and finest Jain temple in the city. Comparatively the Adinath Temple is smaller in size with its sculptures forming a tri-band formation, similar to Hindu temples. The Shantinath Temple is again comparatively modern and was built a century ago with raw materials from older temples. The Ghantai Temple is now mostly in ruins with only the graceful carvings of the bell and chain motifs remaining. The Javari Temple dates back to AD 1075-1100 and is dedicated to Vishnu. The Vamana Temple is slightly older than the Javari Temple, standing alone in the middle of a field. And there is the Brahma and Hanuman Temple, the name confusing since the temple is actually dedicated to Vishnu.

Southern Group
The two temples here are the Duladeo Temple, 1 km away from the Jain enclosure. Not very impressive, this temple does not seem to have received the attention the others did. The other, the Chaturbhuja Temple is south of the river and is quite dilapidated. It houses an image of Vishnu.

Archaeological Museum
For those that find that they simply cannot get enough of the temples and its grandiose display of temple art forms, here is a good place to continue being impressed. Situated a short distance from the Western Group, the museum showcases statues and figurines, a lot of which have been recovered and restored from the ruins of the temples.

Shilpagram
This is again a must visit and in here, you will feel like everything you see is a must-buy. This 10-acre complex has traditional handicrafts from various parts of India. A lot of it is for sale, so get your shopping bags ready. If you are lucky, the time you visit will coincide with some cultural festival or the other being held at the amphitheatre, located within the Shipagram complex.