Khajuraho Group of Monuments

By Rachel Heller

What is Khajuraho Group of Monuments?

Khajuraho Group of Monuments is a collection of temples dating from the Chandela period of Indian history in the 11th century. At the time, Khajuraho was the religious capital of the Chandela rulers, and there were 85 temples. However, many were destroyed in a later Muslim invasion, leaving the 22 that make up the UNESCO site. The temples represent two religions: Jainism and Brahminism (Hinduism). There are three groups of monuments: Western, Eastern and Southern.

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The temples for the most part all follow the same design. They each sit high on a platform because originally they were islands in a lake, only reachable via boats. Each temple is highly decorated on all sides with detailed bas-reliefs representing gods, battles, and daily life, as well as Tantric scenes and a few scenes from the Kama Sutra. The carvings are in remarkably good condition, especially when you consider that they’re over a thousand years old.

To enter, you climb a flight of stairs to the base on which the temple sits. Then, up another flight of stairs, the temple has an entrance portal with, inside the entrance, a small hall. A square area encompassing most of the hall’s floor space is a raised stone platform, one step up, covered by a carved stone canopy. Beyond that is the sanctuary itself, containing either a lingam – a representation of Shiva in the form of a simple column – or an empty space where once there was a statue of a Hindu god such as Vishnu or Surya. The door to the sanctuary is up a few steps and has all sorts of decorative stone work framing its entrance. The highest part of the temple – a tall, narrow stupa – is above this sanctuary.

In some of the temples the inner sanctuary has space around it, allowing visitors and devotees to walk around it, which must always happen in a clockwise direction. The walls of the sanctuary in that narrow space are also richly carved similarly to the outside of the temple.

Why is the Khajuraho Group of Monuments a UNESCO World Heritage site?

There are two main reasons for these monuments to be listed with UNESCO. One is the artistic and architectural achievement that these structures and the artworks incorporated in them represent. The second is simply that they “bear exceptional testimony to the Chandella culture” which ruled in this region from the 9th to the 13th centuries, until its defeat by the Delhi Sultanate.

What can you expect on a visit to Khajuraho?

There are three groups of temples:

The Western Group

The Western Group is where you’ll find the largest and best of the temples. They’re beautiful structures widely separated across a well-kept park – an area that was a lake originally. They make an elegant impression.

Nearing the temples, you’ll be able to see the thousands of sculptures that cover them, including every nook and cranny. Starting on the sides of the platform, you’ll see scenes of battles and daily life, musicians performing, a variety of animals, and also geometrical patterns. The quality is amazing; while these are bas-reliefs, many figures are almost full-fledged sculptures, only attached to the background at a few points.

The battle and everyday life scenes depict people from different parts of India, with different physical characteristics. They are infantry, cavalry, or elephantry, fighting and taking captives. Or they play music and get drunk. And these are just on the platform, before you even climb the stairs to the temple itself.

On the temple walls the carved-stone images appear mostly in a series of rows and columns, and depict various gods as well as lessons from Hindu and Tantric philosophy. Some of these, perhaps five or ten percent, depict sexual acts. These are why the site is a popular tourist destination.

Our guide insisted that what many see as depictions of sex are actually meant as depictions of the Tantric philosophy in which the cosmos contains the male (logic and strength) and female (energy) principles. To attain salvation or nirvana, these must balance each other, as they do in life. The sexual images, then, are an expression of Tantric practice in everyday life. (Despite the openness to sexuality evidenced in these images, there does not seem to have been any place in this world view for homosexuality.) In our guide’s view, only a few of the images are meant just to depict sexual acts as in the Kama Sutra. The images which show only one male and one female are Kama Sutra poses, while the others, which include more people, are Tantric.

A co-owner of Khajuraho Rancho, where we stayed, is training to be a guide, and he had a different, more down-to-earth story. He told us that the Chandela rulers wanted a bigger population and the sexual depictions were intended to encourage the locals to procreate. At the same time, he argued, letting off steam through sex allowed the common people to focus better on the principles of the religion depicted in the rest of the images.

Many of the images are of individual gods, most commonly Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Often, between the more sexual images, a sort of dragon-like creature appears. This represents the internal conflict that people (or gods) fight between lust or ego and love or spiritual connection.

Many of the female images, in particular, pose in positions that appear flirtatious, or they are busy with making themselves beautiful: putting their hair up, applying makeup, or doing yoga poses. The detail is wonderful: you can see the patterns on their saris and even make out their jewelry.

There’s one later temple in the Western Group. It stands out because of the white plaster that covers it. Dating to the 18th century, this temple’s architecture shows the influence of European arrivals in India, and it’s much simpler in design than the others.

The Eastern Group

These temples – just two temples and fragments of more – are on the grounds of a modern Jain temple complex. They are smaller and, at first glance, less impressive. One has a much newer entrance portal attached to the older sanctuary with its stupa. Yet the condition of the carvings here is particularly good – they seemed to have suffered almost no damage in the later Muslim invasions, so we found fewer images with arms, legs or noses missing.

In the second temple in the row, the Adinath temple, the images inside the building but outside the inner sanctuary are particularly vivid and in good condition.

The Southern Group

There are three temples here, the most complete of which has quite a few sexual images, if you look closely. Many are in a sort of niche in corners of the structure.

Is the Khajuraho Group of Monuments worth visiting?

Absolutely, yes. As we walked around the Western Group in particular, I was thinking of our visit the year before to Angkor in Cambodia. Many of the temples there stem from the same time period, and they’re larger. That makes them impressive just for sheer size. But much of the outer stonework is missing, where, in contrast, these temples are practically intact, except for a missing arm or leg here and there. Angkor is far more famous, but Khajuraho is just as worthwhile visiting.

What sorts of travelers would like Khajuraho?

Anyone interested in Hindu history or philosophy or Tantric philosophy would find this place interesting. It’s not particularly of interest to children though.

Tips for visiting Khajuraho

If you don’t have a lot of time, the best of the temples are all together in the Western Group.

Hiring a guide would give you a much more complete understanding of what you are seeing. We usually travel independently, but I was glad we hired a tour guide this time. If you do this, make sure you hire a government-approved guide: there are state credentials and pan-India credentials, either of which would work, but make sure you check the tour guide ID of any guide you hire. Ours, named Sachin, has a pan-India credential and gave me permission to add his information here: his email is spritualkhajuraho (at) gmail (dot) com and here is his phone number: +91-97539-54343.

Click on the images below to see lots more options for tours of the temples:

Bring shoes you can easily take off and put on again because you have to take them off to enter any of the temples.

Bring water if you will be walking from group to group. They’re not far apart, but it can get hot here, especially if you visit in the summer.

One Western Group temple is outside the fence encircling the site, and it’s the only one that is still an active temple. That also means that it’s the only one you can visit for free. Every morning and evening a ceremony takes place there, which you can attend.

The three sites are wheelchair accessible to a point. The walkways are all without steps between the temples, but the temples themselves all have stairs to reach them. You could still see quite a lot of the stonework if you take a pair of binoculars along. If you can manage steps but with difficulty, be aware that some of them are quite steep, and there are no handrails.

Think about also visiting Panna Tiger Reserve and/or Raneh Fall Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary for some wildlife viewing. If you’re into birdwatching, there’s some surprisingly good birdwatching right in Khajuraho, particularly on Shivsagar Lake.

We stayed at a homestay called Khajuraho Rancho not far from the monuments. Staying in a family compound but in a comfortable and quiet room was a great way to get at least a glimpse of the local way of life. Plus the family was incredibly friendly and helpful. One of the brothers drives a tuk-tuk and another has begun a tour company called Rancho Tours, which arranged our visit to Raneh Fall for us. Of course, if you are looking for something a bit more upscale, there are other hotels in Khajuraho.

Where is the Khajuraho Group of Monuments?

Khajuraho is south of Delhi in the state of Madya Pradesh. From Delhi it’ll take 10-12 hours or more by train or by car or 8-10 hours from Agra. It’s only about an hour by air from Delhi to Khajuraho’s fancy new airport.

Khajuraho is, at best, a six-hour train ride from Bhopal, the capital of Madya Pradesh, but likely longer. Driving will take about nine hours, I’d guess. From Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, driving or taking the train will take seven hours or more.

For more information about Khajuraho Group of Monuments, its opening hours and admission fees, see Archaeological Survey of India’s website.

Have you been to Khajuraho? If so, do you have any additional information or advice about this UNESCO World Heritage site? Please add your comments below!