Khajuraho

The Royal tombs of Orcha

 

I asked the driver to leave at 6:00 am but we postponed the process till 6:30 am and we drove for a quick visit to the river where people were doing their morning wash. The scene was extremely beautiful in sunrise, the villagers coming to bath in the river with the background of the Royal Chatris, the royal tombs. Beautiful and peaceful scene in the sunrise. I tried to be quick and after several shots we left to visit Laxminarayan temple that I did not have time to visit the previous day. The temple, located on top of a hill, is a perfect site for sunrise and there were two foreigners there enjoying the view. Unfortunately the temple was closed and was supposed to open at 10 am. I could not wait so long so after several photos we hit the road to Khajuraho around 7:15am.The road proved to be very good and empty at the morning hours. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to leave early besides getting some more day light.

I asked the driver to buy some oranges and bananas and this was the “moving” breakfast of the day, a breakfast that I enjoyed everyday on the road. Everything went great for about 60-90 minutes till we got in Uttar Pradesh and the road disappeared, or it became the famous one lane of disintegrating asphalt that is not wide enough for a truck. But it changed several times from disastrous to dramatic, to OK, to good and in 3 hours exactly we reached Khajuraho. The place is a village that was put on the map by its famous intensly carved temples that have on them some scenes from Kama Sutra, a tribute to Shakti. The driver knew a place to stay and I got a room for Rs 1000, the standard price, at Hotel Suria. The room is OK with AC, hot water and a beautiful garden in the back. I left right after that at 11:30 am to visit the temples that are distributed in three groups, the most important being right in the village and named the Western Group.

Khajuraho

The security guys did not let me take the tripod inside but they let me for a small fee, Rs 25,  to get my camera. The temples, built around 1000AD are impressive beyond words. They represent the peak of temple building mania in India. The decoration is so elaborate that no tiny piece of their surface is left untouched. Gods, apsaras, demons, armies, animals, elephants, camels and people in erotic scene are sharing the outside and inside of the these temples. The main attraction are the erotic scene from Kama Sutra represented on the walls, a manifestation of Shakti. The temples are known as the “love temples” because of these scenes but these scenes represent only 10% from the entire decoration. Obviously they do not differ drastically and after spending a lot of time at the first 2-3 temples to see all the details and scenes, you start going faster and spend less and less time.

Khajuraho

I was able to see the main 5 temples in the complex till about 3:00 pm and went to the hotel to have lunch mainly because it is very hot, 42C I guess. You drink easily many liters of water without going ever to the bathroom a similar thing that we experienced in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in 1995. After the very good biriani lunch I left with the driver to see the temples from the Eastern and Southern complexes. Less interesting and less decorated are more interesting for their landscape, the outskirts of the village with fields full of water buffaloes, pigs, chickens, etc. There the most interesting complex is the one formed by the Jain Temples.

Inside it was an exhibit with Jain photos and some Jain renunciates who were parading naked caring only their small broom in the compound to the surprise of the European visitors who were visiting in hordes. Large tourist groups are a norm here, Khajuraho being a major tour destination, one of the top destination in India. After a last stop at sunset at the single temple of the Southern Group, I finished the visit and after a dinner of eggplants with butter nan on one of the many top floor restaurants I went to the internet. Further I intended to spend some time in the many stores but unfortunately the place is full of touts who are quite annoying. Two of them got around to parade with me at some stores to make they coveted commission.

I had a great discussion with an art dealer who was specialized in very old stuff that was interesting but quite expensive. Latter I went and purchased some wedding Ladakh jewelries from a shop on the main road and went to sleep preparing for an early wake up call for the long drive day to Varanasi.