The Erotic Temples of Khajuraho
Famous For Their Graphic Art and a Leading Tourist Destination
A complex of temples about 350 miles southeast of New Delhi, near the village of Khajuraho, is one of India's most popular tourist destinations.
The Khajuraho temples are one of the country's busiest tourist attractions and are an important part of Indian history. Some 85 temples once existed in the Khajuraho complex, spread out over about eight square miles.
History
The Khajuraho temple complex is India’s largest group of medieval temples. It was built during the first half of the Chandela dynasty. That dynasty started in the 10th Century and lasted about 500 years.
Age and historic value are not the reasons that tourists come here. The truth is that Khajuraho is an underdeveloped backwater where tourists stay in relative discomfort. The temples are the only attraction. While the temples characterize the peak of a particular period of temple architecture in North India, plenty of excellent examples of such architecture exist in much more comfortable and convenient locations. The erotic (some would say pornographic) sculptures that adorn the many of the temples makes the site one of India’s leading tourist attractions.
How many temples are there today? That question is more difficult. Estimates vary from as few as 20 to as many as 28. Experts disagree over whether this or that excavation site was one of the original temples. But even though most of the temples are gone, about a dozen have been maintained and still get used by local worshippers. And one cluster of the temples is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Temple Groups
The Khajuraho temples are usually divided into three groups: the Western Group, the Eastern Group, and the Southern Group. The temples in the Western group are recognized by UNESCO because they contain the oldest and best known of the temples. The temples of the Western and Southern Groups are dedicated to Hindu gods. The Eastern Group contains a mixture of Hindu and Jain temples.
You can find details on individual temples here.
Explaining the Art
There are a handful of theories about why erotic art is found here, but not on temples in other parts of India. They range from practical ideas like that the Chandela dynasty was involved in a Tantric cult (sexual gratification is part of the path to self-knowledge in Tantric mysticism) to the laughable idea that the erotic images served somehow to ward off lightening strikes.
Another theory is that the sculptures on the temples are supposed to illustrate the famous Hindu text on love, the Kama Sutra. Then there’s the story about Indra, the Hindu god of thunder, being a voyeur; the erotic sculptures on Khajuraho’s temples were designed to please him, with the hope that he would not allow them to be destroyed.
A final theory that deserves mentioning is that the art may have been an effort to draw followers away from aesthetic Buddhism and back to Hindu family life.
The temples were built over a period of a century and a half, so it is quite possible that more than one of these theories contains some truth.
Art or Pornography?
Nine out of every ten sculptures at Khajuraho's have nothing to do with sex. So any examination of the art of these temples should be placed in that context.
When British engineer T. S. Burt first discovered these temples in the 1800s he was offended by them. The images are quite explicit and seem unashamed. There is nudity – both male and female. Kissing and fondling are commonly depicted. Group sex is depicted: twosomes and threesomes, foursomes and fivesomes and on to orgies with ten or more participants. There are acts of sexual intercourse that appear to resist gravity; and there is occasionally bestiality portrayed at the temples.
Whether it is art or pornography is a matter of definition that courts and philosophers would struggle with. Whether it is art or pornography, it is a tourist attraction that India benefits greatly from.
You can find plenty of images of Khajuraho's art by looking for them in search engines like Google or at photo sites like Flickr and make your own decision.
