India Destination Khajuraho

Khajuraho

Khajuraho, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Madhya Pradesh, is renowned worldwide for its beautiful temples decorated with erotic and sensual carvings. Khajuraho is a small town in the Bundelkhand region. It is a beautiful example of Indian architecture and culture back in the medieval era. These Hindu and Jain temples architecture portrays the romantic modes of love, and the carvings on the walls show passion in the most sensuous yet artistic ways. The sheer confrontational nature of these carvings, created between 950 and 1050 AD, reveals a clear contrast with the traditional Indian concepts of eroticism, leaving us spellbound.

Chandela rulers built Khajuraho temples, one at a time spread over a hundred year era. The first recorded mention of the temples can be found towards the end of the 11th century in the writings of Abu Rihan-ul Biruni. The temple complex developed in the 12th century, and later fell into the hands of the Delhi Sultan, Qutb-Uddin Aibak, after the Chandela rulers had fallen. The temples had been restored and tended by Muslim rulers in the years to follow. Over the years some of the temples were vandalized and disfigured, and due to their abandoned places were left unmonitored. In 1830 T.S. Burt, a British engineer, later rediscovered the temples and made efforts to restore them.

Art is embedded in all its structures in this small town, and is a classic example of the finesse of Indian cultural and artistic heritage. The best thing about Khajuraho is that while scores of plunderers attempted to destroy the entire complex, they never succeeded, even though they managed to reduce the number of temples and caves from a whopping 85 at the time it was built to 25.