The erotic temples of Khajuraho, in India

India It has everything from great beaches, through incredible cities and beautiful landscapes to temples and sanctuaries to not believe. Perhaps one of the most famous is the complex of Khajuraho temples, striking for their sex scenes all over.

Did you hear about these Indian temples? Maybe yes, maybe not, but if you go to India and you plan to spend a good time traveling and touring it, then getting to know them is a great idea and of course, an unforgettable experience.

The erotic temples of Khajuraho

India is a deeply religious country and it must be difficult to choose which temples and shrines to visit, so you have to sit down, read, look at pictures, a good map of the country and then decide. These temples in particular are in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in the center of the Indian nation, the fifth most populous and the second largest behind the state of Rajasthan.

This state has three sites that the UNESCO they have highlighted as World Heritage and one of them are the Khajuraho temples that are in the town of the same name. They are protected by UNESCO since 1986 and were built between the year 950 and 1050 within a wide walled space.

This space surrounded by walls has eight access doors and each door is surrounded by two palm trees. We know today that all the Hindu temples were most likely saved from the destruction by the Mongols as they are far from the Ganges, so we appreciate that.

It is also known that the vegetation in India is crackling and if man does not keep it at bay he passes it over the top, so that is precisely what happened the minute the temples were abandoned. The jungle swallowed them up so they were rediscovered starting in 1838 by a member of the British army who was then occupying the country. I can imagine what that Englishman, a citizen of the Victorian British Empire, must have thought when he saw the sex scenes!

The temples of Khajuraho are located about 50 kilometers from the city of Chhatarpur. They were built by the rulers of the Chandela dynasty and make up a originally complex of 85 Hindu and Jain temples, although today only 25 buildings remain. And it must be said, not all decorations are erotic, these only represent 10% of the sculptures.

Archaeologists consider that the temples were not built by a single ruler but by several, and that at one point the tradition was generated that each one built or added at least one temple during his reign. That continued until the fall of the Chandela dynasty in the XNUMXth century, the foreign invasion, and the abandonment of the area by the people. The jungle covered everything between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries until the English engineer TS Burt found them.

Visit Khajuraho

A quick way is go by plane to Khajuraho airport, just five kilometers from the temples. You can too Go by train, the station is also 5 kilometers away and there is a connection to Delhi and Bhopal and other cities. In the state there are also other railway stations, about 130 to 200 kilometers around. Jhansi, Katni or Satna, for example.

What stories are behind the erotic temples of Khajuraho? For many stories. One of them says that there was once a beautiful, dark-haired woman who was bathing at night when she was seduced by the Moon herself. She ran through the forest seeking refuge and there she had and raised her son with the promise that one day that man would be the ruler of the kingdom. Chandravarman, that was the boy's name, grew up and eventually founded the Chandala dynasty.

The story also tells that this king, influenced by the story of his mother, began to decorate the temples describing human passions. Is there another story? Yes, the belief circulates that these stone carvings are simply good luck symbols or representations of mythical creatures. Another story says that temples are a kind of sex education, of exaltation of passions before the influence of Buddhist asceticism.

The erotic sculptures are only on the external walls, not inside the temples. They are called mithunas and there are guides who often say that they are outside because it is a question of letting the desires and lust out, before entering. Other guides say that they are descriptions of the tantric cult and its beliefs. For example, the Chausath Yogini Temple is the oldest in Khajuraho with 64 tantric goddesses and that the mithunas are metaphors of life, of the union between Shiva and Shakthi.

As we said above, there were originally 85 temples built by the forgotten Chandela dynasty but among them there are about 22 that are dedicated to Hinduism and Jainism and that do not focus on sexual scenes. The temples and their sculptures are divided into three large groups, those of the south, the east and the west. Erotic carvings are concentrated in the west. In turn, the sculptures can be divided into five categories:

The first category has sculptures that follow the Shilpashastra manual and many can be seen in the Jain Museum. The second category are the sculptures of the reliefs and the niches, guardians of the gods, you win shivas, gandharvas and else. The third is the apsaras, beautiful women who are busy in different activities and are sculpted in detail, with very human expressions, dancing, painting, with babies. There are also other everyday scenes or secular sculptures with musicians, dancers, warriors, courtiers, mythical animals and varied vegetation.

And yes, finally there are erotic sculptures of Khajuraho, the mithunas, with natural and unnatural sexual scenes. with animals and stuff. But what we say is that here there is much more than that and if you take the trouble to go to see the temples you must appreciate everything. Good trip!


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