Beyond Khajuraho's Kama Sutra

July in Khajuraho

It finally arrived from the frame shop last week, a memory sealed within a 2" thick brown wood border. Today it hangs proudly in the front room, the amateurish stroke mistaken for mine by ignorant, visiting neighbours, who loose interest when I tell them it's tribal Gond Art from Madhya Pradesh. To them, it is inexpert colour, to me a small part of a beautiful memory.

Travel finds

Nine months have passed since that trip to Bundelkhand. The hills were unsafe after the floods they said, so towards the plains we (Gowri & I) moved. The trip was a special one,

because it was going to be our last before I shifted cities. We had learnt our lesson from our previous train travel, so this time around we traveled in style in the air conditioned coach. Its a 10-odd hour trip, and the next morning we woke up to the sight of lush green hills and endless plains.

In 'boar'ing company 

Our accommodation chosen after carefully reading the reviews on boooking.com was basic. We checked in, freshened up and set off to explore the temple town. Gowri wanted to travel by bike, but I wasn't very confident about staying on it, so we walked. The main temple cluster is on the Western side, and there are a few others on the Eastern and Southern parts. Of course if you travel in July, like we did, chances are that you wouldn't want to spend any more time than you absolutely have to, out in the sun.

The main tour begins at this gigantic 9-ft Varaha or boar temple - the third avatar of Vishnu. Carved out of a single stone, this beauty has 675 miniature figures carved on it, depicting the Gods of the Hindu pantheon. Though it was magnificent, we were dying to see the erotic sculptures. After all wasn't that what Khajuraho was all about? How wrong we were!

At the Lakshmana Temple, we caught sight of the first erotic carvings. The temple, had on its outer wall carvings that depicted all walks of life - a wedding procession, a war march, a musical setting, and among other things sex.

All kinds of it - couples, orgies, homosexual encounters... one look at the carvings and you'll know that there was a time, (between 950 and 1050 AD to be precise) when sex was spoken, written, carved and probably practiced with gay abandon, and therefore allowed on 'sacred' temple walls.

Lakshmana Temple

And here we are today, on the threshold of change and development, rewriting laws to make same sex marriages a criminal offence or imposing strict moral codes on ourselves based on gender, religion and community. I am going a little off track and sounding like an old tape recorder. Back to Khajuraho then.

After shower

Though sex is depicted on some temple walls, to brand Khajuraho as a Kama Sutra haven would be a crime. This temple town is an architectural masterpiece, each structure designed keeping in mind vastu rules and mythological specifications. The one dedicated to the Sun God faces the East, the one for Shiva has a smaller temple on the opposite side dedicated to Nandi. The 'garbhagraha' or the sanctum sanctorum has circular or square shaped roof depending on the deity in question.

And the carvings.. my oh my.. the art work on each of these temples will blow your mind away! One work particularly caught my fancy. A woman is in a state of undress and the artist has captured the fall of her garment and the curve of her back as she stretches. The Kandariya Mahadev temple was like a poetry cast in stone. At 102-ft, the magnitude of its construction was visible in the recurring patterns and designs on sandstone. It was a bright sunny day, so after nearly four hours of heat and sweat and sun burn, we decided to call it a day.

Our plan was to explore the surrounding areas on day two. So off we went in a hired auto, past the temple town and the airport, in the direction of Panna National Park. As we left the main town behind, the landscape changed. Concrete houses made way for mud tiled ones and soon the thatched roof kind. Then even those vanished, and it was just us on the road, with dry, empty fields on either sides and an occasional grazing buffalo.

I could see that life in Khajuraho is not easy. Connectivity is a grave problem and so is education and development. For years now, strong voices of dissent has risen from Bundelkhand, seeking more funds and possibly a separate state. Post Telangana these voices have only grown louder. The auto stuttered on, and about 20-minutes later, a crowded bus precariously balancing its passengers and their possession on its roof, passed us in the opposite direction. I had seen something like this in the Fevicol advertisement, and had laughed at what I presumed was exaggeration.

Village scene

Now that the bus was gone, the road seemed endless and lonely and the two of us were worried for our own safety. According to the driver, we had traveled half way, but we decided to double back. Call us paranoid or call us cautious, but the loss of a few hundred rupees and half a day was a small price to pay for peace of mind, and probably safety.

Dots & Dashes

When the auto fellow dropped us off near the temple, I noticed a small shop where a man sat painting. Dilip Singh specialises in Gond and Rajasthani style of art, and was at that point working on a commissioned piece for a resort - colourful fishes on a yellow background painted using dots and dashes.

How we befriended him and convinced him to part with his painting is the second part of this story. In that post, I'll also included stories of our adventures across Chhatarpur district, at the often ignored Bhimkund and the pilgrimage site of Jatashakar.

Shiva & Nandi temples

Kandariya Mahadev Temple