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Love, the Living Spirit of Khajuraho
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Love, the Living Spirit of Khajuraho
Article of the Month - September 2005
A Timeless Heritage
Khajuraho temples, now only twenty-four of the original eighty-five surviving, are great shrines
of love. Devastating winds, torrential rains, charring summers, rocking lands, rapacious hands of
man, nature's cruelties and heavy booted feet of time spanning them inch by inch and layer to
layer, deprived them much of their vigor - lips of their smiles, eyes of their glow, bodily curves
of their passionate yearnings and gestures, and figures of their wholesome impact, but despite
they are still amongst the finest works of art that man's creative genius might claim to have ever
created on the earth. Whatsoever human imagination conceives, it will fall short of the
magnificence that these stone structures breathe. These temples, clustering in three groups -
Western, Eastern and Southern, are situated, about 172 kilometers east of Jhansi, at village
Khajuraho in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. Built by Chandela rulers from the ninth to
the twelfth century, these temples abound in timeless quality, earning for them the status of
world heritage monuments. Khajuraho is now for many decades world's one of the most visited
monumental sites.
Unique Architecture
Khajuraho temples, constructed with spiral
superstructures, adhere to northern Indian
shikhara temple style and often to a
Panchayatana plan or layout. A few of these
temples are dedicated to Jain pantheon while the
rest to Brahmanical - to God's Trio, Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva, and various Devi forms. A
Panchayatana temple had four subordinate
shrines on four corners and the main shrine in the
center of the podium, which comprises their base.
With a graded rise secondary shikharas (spires)
cluster to create appropriate base for the main
shikhara over the sanctum. Kandariya Mahadeva,
one of the most accomplished temples of the
Western group, comprises eighty-four shikharas,
the main being 116 feet from the ground level.
These shikharas - subordinate and main, attribute
to the Khajuraho temples their unique splendor
and special character. With a graded rise of these
The Towering Shikhara shikharas from over the ardhamandapa, porch, to
mandapa, assembly hall, mahamandapa, principal
assembly hall, antarala, vestibule, and garbhagraha, sanctum sanctorum, Khajuraho temples
attain the form and glory of gradually rising Himalayan peaks.
An Unbroken Continuity of Love and Life
Not ashlars or stone blocks, but neatly carved and
emotionally charged handsome men, charming women,
gods, apsaras, kinnaras, gandharvas, vidyadharas,
yakshas, yakshis, ganas, dikpals, nagakanyas,
shardulas and other mythical and celestial beings,
engaged in singing, dancing, playing on musical
instruments, embracing, kissing, or making love, carry
these temples to their shikhara heights. Here stone,
endowed with exceptional plasticity, melts into a
wondrous world of emotions and passions, yielding
forms and figures and rhythm and song, and there are
now sensuous lovers, exalted dancers, enthused
singers, maidens engaged in shringara, mothers
caressing kids, and many more who breathe life into
the stone and now there is all of man and all of nature
except the lifelessness which the stone symbolizes, or
a single piece of stone, which has the face of stone.
This unique transformation has made each stone sing,
dance, blow trumpets, yearn in love, doze in slumber,
eject from drowsiness, languish in passion, and burst
with youthfulness, and now the stone not only has a
soul within but also pours it out. It reveals dreams and Mother and Child
realities of man and music of divines; and, thus, each
temple becomes the festival of love and life representing their unbroken continuity.
Pleasure, Not Pangs Define Khajuraho Concept of Love
Whether an exterior or interior, not an inch of temple space
is barren, without a couple populating it and celebrating
love and life in all their shades and colors - mundane and
transcendental, and hardly ever allowing any of them - love
or life, to deprive a lip of its smiles or a face of its glow.
They toil but it is all love's labor and it is never lost. Pangs
of separation are as much a theme of love as is union, but
Khajuraho temples do not know separation, nor they know
old age, decay or death. They believe in life and in all its
pleasurable blessings, and vehemently reject sorrow,
thinking it, perhaps, only an attitude of mind. Hence, old
age, decay or death is not the theme of Khajuraho
sculptors. It is a world of fascinating youthful maidens and
passionate robust males, a world of languished kisses, of
lips unwilling to separate, and of arms interlocking into
unlocking knots, - a world where they meet and love and
From the Devi Jagadamba Temple, discover meaning of life. They have amongst thousands of
Khajuraho their men and women just a single figure of old man and a
(Photograph by Raymond Burnier)
lone disabled, and he too engaged in coition.
Yonder, a Wondrous World
One, when around these temples, would only
think agape how fresh a thousand year ago might
have been that smile, glow in that eye,
composure on that face, heat of passion in that
figure, and contours of that neatly modeled
breast. Here stone is more sensuous, more
tempting than actual living flesh. These creatures
of stone pulsate more with life vigor than life
itself does. It sometimes surprises why the
damsel over there, writing the letter with her
head bowed, does not walk over to the viewer
and hand him her letter to post, when she is so
keen to send it to her lover;
Penning a Love Letter
and why that dancer, who has been putting
ghunghroos, bells, on her feet for so long, is not
beginning dancing, though her glowing face tells
that dance alone is her life.
Courtesan Wearing Anklets
And, look at that Shardula (composite dragon).
The dance has not yet begun, but it twists to its
notes and rhythm.
That jealous monkey is rightly punished, as it
was none of its business to poke a nose into
others' affairs. One would hardly forgive that
cruel thorn piercing the foot of that comely maid.
The wicked thorn would not now come out, even
if the young damsel keeps on pulling it out for
many more centuries.
It is a wondrous world with multi-dimensions of
life, though all leading only to its glowing aspect,
which abounds in beauty, enjoyment of youth and
attainment of love as its ultimate. Khajuraho
temples, even as they survive, are so full of this
glowing aspect of life that flesh itself discovers
its inspiration in stone. In their power to move Lady Plucking Out Thorn from Her Feet
the senses and mind these temples are unique.
They have that quality which takes the viewer into the realms of transcendental delight -
parmananda, the ultimate bliss of Indian philosophy of life. Aesthetic totality, power to sublimate
- to lead from material base to the highest plain of serenity, is the strength of these temples, and
this they discover in love which is their prime theme and concern.
Love, the Enshrining Spirit
Khajuraho temples, if love was not their enshrining spirit, would lose most of their thrust, appeal
and splendor. India had a long tradition of sculpted temples, in sandstone as also in marble, and
almost all temple-styles have wondrous specimens of carvings, but they could hardly reach the
aesthetic level of Khajuraho. Such temples often have more ornate bodies but not the soul
within, nor the Khajuraho-like enshrining spirit. Khajuraho temples have both, a meaningfully
sculpted body and its enshrining spirit and this spirit is love, which gives them their spiritual
unity and great mysticism - the theme for the senses and as much for the soul.
The appearance of this enshrining spirit is massive in Khajuraho temples. They have devoted to
love yards of space and thousands of sculptures, though hardly ever seeking to deify it.
Kamadeva, the love-god, and his consort Rati figure in Khajuraho sculptures and Vaman temple
of eastern group seems to be fully devoted to vasantotsava, the festival devoted to the love-god
Kamadeva, but despite none of the surviving temples appears to have been dedicated to him. The
Khajuraho sculptor did not believe in confining love to sanctum sanctorum, as to him, what
lighted the shrine within, could as well illumine without; what defined the essence of gods, could
not be adverse to man; and, if it elevated the self, its physical manifestation will not pollute the
flesh too. To him, love was a passion, but an elevating one, a philosophy, but not a dry dogma - a
set of rigid thought. It was rather a phenomenalism, a phenomenally realized truth of life.
Woman, A More Significant Component of Love
Khajuraho sculptor discovered in woman the
gamut of his theme, as she was to him not only
love's prime means, which was his main theme
and primary concern, but also the finest of God's
creation. Hence, Khajuraho art, as also its
underlying thought, rotates around the woman.
She has been endowed with massive energy, and
far from being the coy mistress of subsequent
Nayika-cult, in all matters, especially relating to
love, she is seen taking initiative and lead. She is
more expressive and capable of long cradling
and enjoying a passion.
Teasing Her Lover's Beard
While the male would reveal it in his superficial
smiles, it remains stored in the oceanic depths of
her composure. It descends deep into her entire
being making her at the most languishing and
dozing. As deeply set is her contentment. Her
youthful vigor bursts into her entire being -
elevated and temptingly molded breasts and hips,
amorous eyes and fascinating lips, sensuous
mudrayen, gestures, and the like. The range of
her love-related activities - from writing the letter
to her lover to preparing her male partner for
union, is wider than that of the man.
Disrobing Her Mate
To her, meeting her male and uniting with him in love is
more like a festival, to which she prepares herself, and
sometimes even her male partner who is usually passive,
though not indifferent to the whole act. Khajuraho
sculptures portray her across different stages of shringara.
She is bathing there beside a fountain and here dressing her
hair. With the mirror held in one of her hands, she is
applying a little vermilion into the forepart of her hair.
Now she shall put a payal, an anklet on her feet as also
beautify them by applying mahawara, lac. Her large eyes are
bewitching but their magic would be the ever most if she
puts a sleek line of collyrium, lampblack, on them. She
sings, dances and plays on various instruments as music
stimulates sex more than do other means. When all this does
not sufficiently works, she enhances her charms and excites
her partner by fully or partially removing her garments.
The Apsara Applying Vermilion
(A Sculpture Inspired by
Khajuraho)
Now exposed to his eye are her
fascinating breasts and other private
parts, and to add to their magic, she
invitingly tickles, tosses and cajoles
them. Absolute delight being the sole
object in mind, she does not hesitate to
titillate, or even orally tease her
partner's organ, or do whatever would
kindle his energies. She is, however,
more dignified than her male partner
who under the heat of passion does not
hesitate in having intercourse even with Unnatural Coition
his mare. She, on the contrary, restricts
to limits prescribed in treatises.
The Divine Image
Khajuraho artist's vision of the Divine, leaving
aside the enshrining deity image - the
iconographically symbolized spiritual element, is
his vision of man. Strangely, the denizens of
heaven and mythical world - gods, apsaras,
kinnaras and others, who populate the sculptural
world of Khajuraho temples, outnumber man, but
rent by human emotions and passions, and even
by animal instincts, they only represent the
human model of divines. Hence, whether Uma
with Mahesh, a Vishnu and Lakshmi-like looking
divine couple, an apsara with a yogi, a
nagakanya in attendance or a kinnari reciting a
song, all are modeled with as passionate a
bearing as ordinary human beings. Vishnu in his
Varaha, boar incarnation has a boar's
iconography and anatomy. The Khajuraho artist
not only carves Varaha with boar's anatomy but
also dedicates to him a temple; the deity has,
however, a different set of mudrayen, gestures,
Image of Varaha from Khajuraho more like someone in passionate love or exalted
dance, such as has Shiva in his gyrating form. As
love is the presiding spirit of all forms - divine or mortal, the gap between the two is itself
dispelled. The Khajuraho artist has thus perceived the Divine with human frailties, and man as
enshrouded in divinity.
Love in Khajuraho art and in Indian tradition of Thought
Khajuraho temples have hundreds of sculptures portraying various positions of coition and love
making - a long and languished kiss; an unlocking excited embrace; the passionate male
removing his partner's garment or she herself doing it; female, bitten by Kama, tossing and
titillating or even the mukha-maithuna, as treatises call it; female partner riding her male by
herself or assisted by others so that his organ penetrates into her with fuller pressure and to
greater depths; male doing intercourse from behind, a typical posture of animals in coition; a
yogi, a disabled, a bearded divine and other unusual players being engaged in coition; and, even
animals being made the partners of the game, things which the modern mind would consider
obscene and vulgar. Was it so also with the ancient man or with the man of early medieval era?
perhaps not. The known traveler Ibn Batuta, whose travel memoirs have been a great source of
Indian history, records to have visited Khajuraho in A. D. 1335. According to him, temples were
always thronged by crowds of mahantas and common devotees. Obviously, people those days
thought of sex and love differently.
The Vedic Brahmanism - Shaivism and Vaishnavism, favoured family life and deified instinct of
sex as Kama and the female in union with him as his consort Rati and held them in great
reverence. Buddhism advocated renunciation and Jainism to its extreme. The Indian art vision
was not, however, subservient to metaphysical principles of any of these faiths. The art tradition
perceived temple as the microminiaturised manifestation of the cosmos. Cosmos is the manifest
form and the outer frame of the Formless Supreme Who pervades it without and enshrines
within. In exact analogy, the outer frame of the temple is the material manifestation of the
cosmos, and as enshrines the Formless Supreme within the cosmos so the deity does within the
temple - sanctum sanctorum. Obviously, this outer frame should have all that the cosmos has - all
its passions, emotions, instincts, frailties, or even perversions.
Hence, it is least surprising that Jain temples at Khajuraho have as much abundance of sex
panels as have Brahmanical temples. The tradition may be traced back to Ajanta and in early
Mithuna sculptures of Gupta art. Ajanta does not have scenes of coition, kissing or embracing,
but in sensuous modeling of its female figures even this religious art is not far behind. In
Brahmanical temples of Khajuraho, this aspect is more thrusting. Brahmanism divided life into
four stages - artha, money, kama, sex or love, dharma, right path, and moksha, salvation and
prescribed that one might neither attain right path nor salvation unless passes through the stages
of artha and kama.
Vaishnavism further widened the cult. It perceived love and creation as God's prime attributes.
Hence, in human love Khajuraho artists discovered reflection of God's divine act. Shaivism
conceived love as enlivening energy generated by union and interaction of male and female
generative factors. Shaktism seems to have inspired the Khajuraho art most. Kaul Kapalika sect,
a Tantrika expansion of Shaktism, emphasized that body was most intimately linked with mind
and soul and, hence, the factors that motivated the body and charged inherent energies also
charged and elevated mind and soul. Kapalika tantrikas believed that sex, instinct to love, Kama,
was body's integral part, or rather its enlivening strength, major source of motivation, which
charged in sexual union prepared body, and thereby soul and mind, for harbouring all pleasurable
sensations which finally led to parmananda, state of transcendental ecstasy, when ego
disappeared and self united with and merged into universal or cosmic self, and yoni-sadhana,
methodically performed sexual union using principles of Yoga, was its most appropriate
instrument, and Khajuraho, perhaps, its best laboratory.
All photographs, unless otherwise mentioned,by Shri Rajbir Singh, Chief Photographer,
Archaeological Survey of India.
References and Further Reading
- Daljeet, Dr. and Jain, P.C. Monuments of India (Delhi, Agra, Khajuraho, Jaipur): New Delhi,
2002.
- Desai, Devangana. Khajuraho (Monumental Legacy): New Delhi, 2003.
- Deva, Krishna. Khajuraho: New Delhi, 2002.
- Deva, Krishna. Temples of Khajuraho (2 Volumes): New Delhi, 1990.
- Poddar, Pramila. Khajuraho Temples of Love: New Delhi.
This article by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of ancient
Indian literature. Dr Daljeet is the chief curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at the National
Museum of India, New Delhi. They have both collaborated on numerous books on Indian art and
culture.
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