The Khajuraho Temples were built by the Chandella rulers between AD 900 and 1130, during the golden period of the Chandela dynasty. It is presumed that every Chandella ruler built at least one temple in his lifetime. One noteworthy ruler was Maharaja Rao Vidyadhara, who repelled the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni. His love for sculptures is shown in these temples of Khajuraho and Kalinjar fort. Khajuraho, located right in the heart of Central India in the state of Madhya Pradesh, is believed to be the religious capital of Chandellas. The Chandella rulers had tried to distinguish politics from religious & cultural activities and established their political capital in Mahoba, making Khajuraho a religious and cultural capital. The first recorded mention of the Khajuraho temples is in the accounts of Al-Biruni in AD 1022 and in the works of the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta in AD 1335.
The Khajuraho temples, scattered over an area of about 9 square miles, depict the traditional lifestyle of women in the medieval age. Rediscovered almost nine centuries later, they give a poignant representation of life in the 11th century. A few of the temples are dedicated to the Jain pantheon and the rest to Hindu deities — to God’s Trio, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and various Devi forms, such as the Devi Jagadambi. The divine sculptures are a tribute to life itself, embodying everything that is sublime and spontaneous about it. Built using sandstone, with varying shades of buff, pink and pale yellow, each contains an entrance, a hall, a vestibule and a sanctum. The inside of the temple has rooms that are inter-connected and placed on an East/West line and constructed with spiral superstructures, adhere to a North Indian shikhara temple style and often to a Panchayatana plan.
The images of Goddesses and Gods sculpted on the temple walls represent the many manifestations of the divine Shakti and Shiva, the female and male principles, the Yin and the Yang. These temples are mainly associated with their erotic art, especially the western Devi Jagdambi Temple, located next to the Kandariya Mahadeva temple. The Devi Jagdambi temple is erroneously linked to Devi Jagdambi and is in fact a Vishnu temple. It has rows of sculptures depicting devanganas, mithunas, divinities and explicit erotic sculptures, especially those depicting mithunas in sexual positions. It is because of these erotic sculptures that these temples are also known as the Kama sutra temples. Most of the erotic sculptures can be found either on the outside or inner walls of the temples but not near the deities. However, it is a common misconception that the sculptures show lovemaking between deities. In fact, they actually show passionate interactions between humans along with changes that occur in the human bodies.
It is considered that these temples are a celebration of womanhood as they depict sculptures of heavily ornamented broad-hipped and busty but well-proportionate women (apsaras) adorning the temple walls. The well contoured bodies of the nymphs grab attention and they can be seen engaging in activities like putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games and knotting and unknotting their girdles.

A Catalogue of Desire: The Erotic Sculptures of the Khajuraho Temples

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