Khajuraho

Once a great Chandela capital, Khajuraho is now a quiet village in Madhya Pradesh which is fast metamorphosing into a tourist town. Essentially a small hamlet with about 12000 residents, the place has been drawing a number of foreign tourists to it since the last two decades. The temples are well preserved and have not been destroyed by invaders like other temoples in northern India. The tiny village of Khajuraho shot to fame on the international tourist circuit after its erotic sculptures were discovered in 1838. Some believe them to be physical embodiments of the greatest treatise on love- The Kama Sutra. The name Khajuraho is derived from the Khajur (Date Palm) trees that line the borders of the village.

Khajuraho at times referred to as the Kamasutra temple is world renowned for its sculptured temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu, and Jain deities, and the sexually explicit carvings both inside and outside the temple. A UNESCO world heritage site Khajuraho is believed to have had over 75 temples of which 22 remain today. Spread over an area of approximately 20 square kilometers on the north eastern part of Madhya Pradesh, Khajuraho is a major tourist and archaeological site in Madhya Pradesh. Khajuraho temples are divided into three sections or zones, namely, western, eastern and southern, according to their location. The western complex is the largest of the three and comprises of some of the most popular temples at Khajuraho.

Khajuraho is a brilliant example of Indian architecture and its culture back in the medieval period. The architecture of these Hindu and Jain temples depict the innocent form of love, the carvings on the walls display passion in the most erotic yet aesthetic ways. Built between 950 to 1050 AD the sheer confrontational nature of these carvings show a stark paradox with the conventional Indian ideals about eroticism, leaving everybody spellbound. Art in this small town is engrained in all of it