India: Marvels & Mysteries | Khajuraho's Unique Sculptures

A thousand years ago, in a land called Jejaka Bhukti, rose a great kingdom. The origins of its kings lie in myth and legend. To a time when Hemavati, a young woman, lived in the world of mortals. So desirable was she, that even the immortals could not resist her. And one night, Chandradev, the moon god himself, descended to earth. Their love child was named Chandravarman, son of the moon, the first of the Chandravanshi Chandelas. Beyond the mist of their mythical descent, the Chandelas left a great legacy. Eighty-four magnificent structures, enigmatic examples of architectural precision, and surprising sensuality. But in five centuries, the Rajput Chandela dynasty ended. Their majestic buildings were desecrated, some destroyed. The jungle claimed those that survived. Some eight hundred years later, vast tracts of unexplored India were falling under British control. A race to conquer, grab, and annex the country's unlimited riches had begun. In 1838, a British army engineer, Captain T.S. Burt, was traveling through Bundelkhand in central India. From the locals he heard of ancient temple ruins in the area. Burt was interested. He dropped all other plans and decided to explore. He made his way through jungles. T.S. Burt would rediscover Khajuraho, one of the greatest temple complexes the world would ever know. The find was truly monumental. The Khajuraho monuments are located in the Chhatarpur district of modern-day Madhya Pradesh. Only twenty-four survive today and are divided into the Eastern, Western, and Southern group of temples. In 1986, Khajuraho was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The most famous are the Western group of temples. Most are built of sandstone on granite platforms, using no mortar or cement. Indigenous building technology used joints, gravity, and balance to erect massive stone structures. Some columns and beams weigh up to twenty tons. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Kandariya Mahadev Temple is one of Khajuraho's great wonders. It is the largest, 109 feet in length and 60 feet wide. Its shikhar, or tower, rises 116 feet above the ground. Thousands of sculptures adorn the temples. The soft sandstone allowed sculptors to create artworks of spectacular finesse and lifelike detail. Ninety percent of them depict scenes from ancient Indian life and mythology. But it's the remaining ten percent that are the most famous and provocative. Appearing on the exterior walls is erotic art that leaves little to the imagination. Indeed, some of it even defies imagination. Most visitors, much like Captain T.S. Burt almost 200 years ago, are baffled by the sexual imagery on sacred walls. So, what were the makers thinking? It seems provocative from our vantage point today. But for them, a thousand years ago, there seems to have been a comfort with all kinds of desires that today we would call perverse, illegal, abnormal. And so this idea of, oh, we've moved a thousand years forward and therefore we are more permissive and more open, is simply not true. We were much more open, much more permissive many, many centuries ago than we are today. Khajuraho's erotic art is still a subject of debate and interpretation. Back in 1838, Captain T.S. Burt did not understand it. The conservative and Puritan views of his Victorian-era Britain were in conflict with what he had seen. He wrote disapprovingly. The sculptor had at times allowed the subject to grow a little warmer than there was any absolute necessity for his doing. Indeed, some of the sculptures were extremely indecent and offensive. But there is much more to Khajuraho that is intriguing. Most Hindu temples face east, in keeping with Vastu Shastra, the ancient science of architecture. But despite the mathematical precision of Khajuraho's structures, some face a few degrees off due east. Was this an error? According to one theory, the shrines do in fact astronomically align to the rising sun, but only on a particular day every year. For some temples, that day is Maha Shivaratri, celebrating the wedding of Lord Shiva and Parvati. For others, it is the day of Holi, festival of Lord Krishna, incarnation of Vishnu. On this spring morning, the first rays of the rising sun enter the innermost sanctum, illuminating the resident idol. Whether for its architectural perfection or artistic provocation, Khajuraho will remain among India's greatest enigmas.