Khajuraho needs no introduction. By virtue of being a World Heritage site, it is quite well-known nationally and even internationally. The ideas propagated about it however, may not always be a cent percent true. And here I am to dispel some extremely wrong myths about this place.

Khajuraho gets it’s name from the ‘khajur’ (dates) trees growing here. The building of the world-famous temples here was started by the Chandelas, who were actually chieftains under the Pratihara rulers. They eventually of course, established their own kingdom, which started with Khajuraho.

The temples exist today in three groups – Eastern, Southern and Western. The eastern group of temples are all Jain temples today, though according to the guard roaming around there, two of the largest temples there were actually originally Shiva and Parvati temples. My tryst with Khajuraho started from this group of temples.

Shiva Temple, Eastern Group

We next went on to the Chaturbhuj Temple, which is part of the Southern group of temples. The statue inside is kind of unique by virtue of having the head of Shiva, torso of Brahma and legs of Krishna.

Statue at Chaturbhuj Temple

The evening was devoted to watching the Son et Lumiere show at the main Western group of temples, while all the while shivering in the biting cold. But the show was worth freezing my toes off. Because the next day, when we actually visited the Western group of temples in broad daylight, we knew something and didn’t have to totally rely on the audio guide (which by the way has too much of music. Not something you can get over with quickly).

Need I say how fascinating the feeling was to be standing at a place you’ve heard of so much? A place which the whole world knows of and admires. And for good reason too!

Western Group of Temples

The beautiful sculptures and carvings on the body of each temple, are breathtaking. I was constantly struck dumb by the sheer amount of work put into each temple and then the enormous thought put into each sculpture and carving. The temples feel alive, a feeling no amount of noise and distraction around you can take away.

Alright now, Khajuraho 101 : The erotica (which is supposedly what everyone comes to observe) makes up only 10% of the whole range of sculptures here. And the reasons for having these erotic pieces of art actually exist. they’re not there only for some perverted pleasure. There are three reasons which can explain their presence on temples. Firstly, without the presence of female beauty, a temple is incomplete, just as a house is incomplete without the presence of a woman. Secondly, when you follow the Hindu ritual of circumambulating the temple, these images and other scenes from daily life are present alongside figures of gods and goddesses so that we can move past these wordly pleasures and move forward towards the divine. And thirdly, these sexual depictions are seen as protectors of the temple. Another reason may have been the Tantric influence. Tantricism as a practise believed sexual satisfaction to be the means to attain spiritual salvation.

Hence it can be easily seen that the ‘erotica’ here is present not only because in the past, India celebrated female beauty, but also because every sculpture has  significance. They were not made for any physical experience. It transcended all that.

Therefore, as you can guess, this trip was quite a learning experience for me. And I have been telling everybody off whenever they are inclined to mention how uncomfortable it must have been for me to go with my parents. Grow up people. People thousands of years ago were more mature and saw the beauty of a woman rather than objectifying her. *goes into furious feminist tirade*

There is a lot to see in the Western group.

Varaha (Wild Boar incarnation of Vishnu) Temple

Kandariya Mahadeo Temple

Jagdambi Temple

Awesomeness

Very near to Khajuraho, is the Panna Tiger Reserve. Here too, I had a great time (I just love jungle safaris). The elusive tiger? Remained elusive. But can you believe our luck? There were three safari jeeps roaming aroound the reserve at the same time. We even passed the other two groups. One of them saw a tiger. CAN YOU BELIEVE OUR LUCK??!! They took a right from a forked road where we took a left, “And that has made all the difference”. Robert Frost was so right. I was trying not to show how depressed I was that Lady Luck had tricked us into such a situation though I felt like weeping copious amounts of tears.

Moving on. Here are some of the beautiful specimens of nature we did see

Spotted Deer. Isn't he majestic?

Cutest Deer Fawn EVER. He stood looking at us the whole while we Ooh-ed and Aww-ed at him

Scaly, lazy Croc sunning on a tiny island in the middle of the Karnavati river, inside Panna Reserve

We also saw a wild cat, many Nilgai, Sambhar, a couple of jackals, and a family of Wild boar (which refused to stand still for a picture). Our guide was pretty good. I started off very skeptically, listening to him say things like “Sshh…there’s definitely a Cheetah in there somewhere.” with a suppressed sigh and roll of my eyes. But the place where he said there was a Tiger around, actually was the place where that other lucky group saw Mr. Elusive. So I had new-found respect for our guide then. Which means we were definitely very close to seeing a tiger ad a cheetah too that day. Oh well. Gives me an excuse to go back for a safari again. Hee.

This was sort of the end of my vacation. We were off the next day to catch our train from Jhansi. The train was 3 hours late because of the oh-so-awesome Delhi fog. And then we reached Delhi at around 1:30 am and then came back home at around 2:15 am.

Home Sweet Home :)

We reached the beautiful, tiny town of Orchha sometime in the afternoon. Our hotel was a little removed from the main hustle-bustle, and was instead nearer to the Betwa river, on the banks of which this settlement came up and hence nearer to the cenotaph complex made on the Betwa’s banks. Yes, there seem to be a lot of cenotaphs in M.P. Even Shivpuri had as it’s most important monuments…cenotaphs. But these structures are beautiful. Especially, everything, when bathed in the mellow rays of the rising or setting sun, always looks breathtaking, doesn’t it?

Orchha Cenotaphs

So in the evening, we were walking along the banks of the river and looking at some pretty old cenotaphs. Did I mention it was all empty? That added to the lost-in-time feel which I value so much. My dad and I also climbed up the steep stone stairs up to the upper levels of some of the cenotaphs, while my mom stood below and kept warning us to not go too high up, stay away from the edges, for heaven’s sake not to roam around like that up there. You get the gist.

The next day, we went to visit the Ram Raja Temple first. The legend behind this temple was quite interesting. The story goes that the Queen of Orchha was a Ram devotee. However, her husband, the King, a Krishna devotee, ridiculed her faith. So she went to Ayodhya, to pray to her Lord Ram so that he would come back with her in some form. For this purpose, she told her servants in Orchha to start building a temple to keep him in. This temple is the Chaturbhuj Temple. In Ayodhya, the queen prayed and fasted for many days in front of a Ram temple. Hence, Lord Ram  appeared in front of her. She pleaded with him to come with her to Orchha. The God agreed to go with her as a baby boy. On reaching Orchha, the queen, tired of journeying, decided to rest a little. But as she placed the baby Ram there, he became a statue and would not move. He was, after all, a Raja (King) and must stay in a palace. Hence the palace became the temple and is called Ram Raja temple.

I was hence, very excited about visiting this temple. I just couldn’t wait to see how the statue looked and how the palace-turned-temple looked.

I was disappointed.

Ram Raja Temple

The temple looks nothing like an old palace anymore (if even it ever did). It’s that white and yellow construction at the back. It’s extremely crowded, but that’s usual for any temple in India. But really…white and yellow paint? WHY?! *sigh*

After having been inside the temple (the statue indeed, is slightly different from other statues I’ve seen) we were supposed to go to the Chaturbhuj temple. But there was an army of monkeys and langurs roaming around it. This was when my parents decided it would be better to go on to Lakshminarayn temple. And so we did. Now this is a beautifully located temple. It’s on top of a small hillock, and you can see all the way around, miles of farmland and the main Orchha centre in the distance. Also, the temple itself? B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!

Lakshminarayan Temple

Inside this beautiful structure, are a lot of wall frescoes of varying scenes from Hindu mythology, war scenes and even a few Mughal paintings which were most probably made to welcome some Mughal emperor who came to visit Orchha

Fresco of Lord Vishnu lying down with Goddess Lakshmi near his feet. The word 'Lakshminarayan' can actually be broken into two words - Lakshmi (the Goddess of wealth and prosperity) and Narayan (another name for the God Vishnu)

There was also a very interesting person outside the temple

This is why I love travelling. Especially when I’m living in a country as diverse as India, there’s so much to see. Every place has something new to offer, every road leads somewhere new and beautiful.

Next, we came back to the centre of Orchha. We now had to go visit the Orchha palace(s). The main palace is the Raja Mahal (which I’m guessing the King of Orchha had to build once Ram Raja took over his original palace). It’s disappointingly ill-maintained, but there are a few frescoes in wonderful condition.

Frescoes at Raja Mahal

Right next to the Raja Mahal, is the Sheesh Mahal which has now been converted into a hotel by Madhya Pradesh Tourism. And right next to that (yes. There are three-four palaces right next to each other here), is the Jehangir Mahal. It was built when the Mughal emperor Jehangir was to visit Orchha. To welcome him, the Jehangir Mahal was made and hence the style of construction is different from all the other structures here in Orchha. This palace is made in the Islamic style, with jaali work (stone lattice windows), domes and some other characteristic features.

Inside Jehangir Mahal

It’s got a huge courtyard with a shallow tank in the middle, surrounded by four other smaller pools. The jaali work is really spectacular and gives the structure an instant Mughal feel.

Jaali work (stone lattice windows)

You can climb right up to the top too. I did. It’s a lot of stairs. Steep stairs. With no lighting. And no railings on the top floors. With monkeys roaming around. But it was bloody amazing!

Can you make out? I'm standing under that small chhatri :D

This was sort of the end of our sight-seeing in Orchha. We went back and lounged around at the hotel (which had some absolutely smashing gardens). We watched the sun set next to the cenotaphs and it was truly an out-of-this-world experience. It also, in some way, signalled the end of our stay at Orchha. The next morning we were off to Khajuraho!

Sunset next to the cenotaph spires in Orchha

(To be contd.)