Theobald Barber

March 18, 2025

The Khajuraho temple complex, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

In his comic memoir Hindoo Holiday J.R. Ackerley recalls the time when he was working as the personal secretary to the Maharaja of Chhokrapur, a name he invented to disguise the whereabouts of the former small princely state which is in fact Chhatarpur.

Wonderfully amusing and acerbic about the local British officers, he describes a visit to what surely must be the Khajuraho temple complex: “On the way Major Pomby warned us that one of the temples had some highly indecent sculptures on its walls. ‘We must keep clear of it’, he said, ‘in case the ladies follow us.’” Ackerley does find this particular temple eventually, but as you have to take your shoes off to enter temples in India ‘the ladies remained outside lest they spoilt their stockings’. I recommend the book and of course a visit to the area.

Christian teaching has at times inveighed against ‘the sins of the flesh’, whereas the Hindu tradition celebrates karma or sexual desire as an essential part of life. Since the time when these temples were built – the 10th century – Indian society has become rather more conservative.

Of the original eighty-five shrines which comprised the original temple complex, only some twenty-five survive, my charming old guide told me. Originally surmounting platforms which stood in a vast man-made lake, the temples are now dark brown islands in a sea of green lawn. The intricacy of the carved friezes running around every tier of the temples’ exteriors is astonishing – gods, voluptuous handmaids, elephants, warriors and deer – all depicted in amazing detail.

Some of the carvings display feats of erotic athleticism involving the god and a number of handmaidens – and some even more arrestingly record the sodomitic activities of soldiers finding solace after the deprivations imposed by years away at war. There is some evidence of vandalism and the occasional trace of decay and restoration, but the condition, clarity and freshness of the carving in general is staggering.

It is difficult to comprehend that these highly sensual images celebrating the beauty of the human body were created at the same time as our earliest Romanesque churches and fascinating to compare their exuberant nakedness with the shrouded saints of Greek Orthodox art. The carvings seem to defy everything – simplicity, balance, rhythm, symmetry and elegance – which we have been taught to admire in western art and have a life-affirming exuberance which challenges many of our assumptions about the purpose of religious imagery.

One temple on the outer perimeter is open for worship, and it was uplifting to see it still being used as was originally intended, with pilgrims ascending and descending the steep steps, a sea of brightly coloured flowers and fruits spilling over the pavements, and noisy prayers breaking the silence.

A visit to these temples is the perfect entry point for the wildlife reserves of Madhya Pradesh.

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