# The temples of Khajuraho
**खजुराहो के मंदिर**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/khajuraho/
- Chapter: [Cholas to the Sultanate](https://indianepics.online/chapter/medieval.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 950 CE – 1050 CE (± 10 years)
- Where: Kandariya Mahadeva temple, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh (24.8525, 79.9199)
- Tags: art, religion

## Summary

Between about 950 and 1050 the Chandela kings build dozens of Hindu and Jain temples at Khajuraho; some twenty survive.

लगभग 950 से 1050 के बीच चंदेल राजाओं ने खजुराहो में दर्जनों हिंदू और जैन मंदिर बनवाए; इनमें से लगभग बीस आज भी खड़े हैं।

## Account

An inscription dated 953–54 CE, set up under the Chandela king Dhanga, records that his father Yashovarman built a temple to Vishnu as Vaikuntha, the one known as the Lakshmana temple. The Kandariya Mahadeva, the largest temple at the site, is generally dated to around 1030. The towers rise in clustered peaks meant to suggest a mountain range, and the walls carry hundreds of figures, of which the erotic panels are a small share.

The Chandelas ruled Jejakabhukti, the later Bundelkhand, from the forts of Kalinjar and Mahoba. Khajuraho was a temple town, not a stronghold, and it lay off the main roads, which may be why so much of it stood. It was little known beyond the region until a British officer, T. S. Burt, visited it in 1838.

What the erotic sculpture meant is debated: tantric ritual, protection for the building, courtly display, or a picture of the world outside the sanctum. No contemporary text explains it.

## Sources

- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Khajuraho Group of Monuments — https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/240/
- Epigraphia Indica, vol. I (1892) — https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.69993 (Kielhorn's edition of the Khajuraho inscriptions, including the Lakshmana temple inscription of Vikrama year 1011 (953–54 CE))
- Desai, Khajuraho (2000)

## Image

The Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh. Taru23, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Kandariya_Mahadeva_Temple%2C_Khajuraho%2C_Madhya_Pradesh.jpg

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