Fwd: khajuraho temples

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, kishore shrishti

<kishore_future> wrote:

Between 950 and 1050AD these temples took shape. Of the 85-orginal

temples only 22 have stood the test of time. There is a legend

attached to these temples. Hemwati, the beautiful daughter of a

Brahmin priest, is said to have been seduced by the moon-god and the

child born of this union was Chandravarman. He later went on to form

the Chandela dynasty. When established as a ruler, he had a vision of

his mother imploring him to build temples that would reveal the

deepest of human passions and desires. Thus the world got the temples

of Khajurao. Similarly, there are many versions to these explicit and

erotic sculptures. While some historians claim that one of the

doctrines of Hinduism tells sexual love is the form of energy, the

depiction in temples is but natural. Some others claim that these

temples were built as a celebration of Shiva's marriage with Parvati,

which is why the atmosphere is so romantically and sensuously charged.

 

Hundreds of others came, saw the sculptures, passed their own

judgments, and left. But none seemed to be excited by looking at them.

They all seemed disappointed that the eroticism they had

 

 

 

Between 950 and 1050AD these temples took shape. Of the 85-orginal

temples only 22 have stood the test of time. There is a legend

attached to these temples. Hemwati, the beautiful daughter of a

Brahmin priest, is said to have been seduced by the moon-god and the

child born of this union was Chandravarman. He later went on to form

the Chandela dynasty. When established as a ruler, he had a vision of

his mother imploring him to build temples that would reveal the

deepest of human passions and desires. Thus the world got the temples

of Khajurao. Similarly, there are many versions to these explicit and

erotic sculptures. While some historians claim that one of the

doctrines of Hinduism tells sexual love is the form of energy, the

depiction in temples is but natural. Some others claim that these

temples were built as a celebration of Shiva's marriage with Parvati,

which is why the atmosphere is so romantically and sensuously charged.

 

 

 

Hundreds of others came, saw the sculptures, passed their own

judgments, and left. But none seemed to be excited by looking at them.

They all seemed disappointed that the eroticism they had expected was

missing. Travel brochures and exaggerated publicity are responsible

for this. The travel guides too seemed to exaggerate the sculpture and

regularly cooked up stories in order to extract tips. No wonder that

those who come here expecting a Las Vegas will be disappointed,

because there is only pure beauty and no perversion in these temples.

Creations such as a cabaret or pornography, which are designed to

excite human sexuality, are absent here. Even the magnetism of a

curvaceous female body is missing from these sculptures. Just as we do

not think of sex when seeing the image of a half clad Laxmi (a.k.a.

Lakshmi ) or Saraswati (Hindu deities), we cannot think of sex at

these temples.

 

 

 

It was here that I realized the biggest misconception about Khajuraho.

It is so easily passed off as `fully erotic.' The sanctums of these

temples have the most revered of the Hindu and Jain Gods. There is

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Surya and the Jain Tirthankarras. The next

range of sculptures depicts people in acts of everyday life such as

working, listening to teachers, waging battles and so on. So next time

you talk Khajuraho don't pass it off casually. It is worth imagining

the sculptor's chisel and his mastery to bring to the world such fine

architecture.

 

There are different opinions on why temples were decorated with

sexually explicit sculptures. One group argues that the old kings

lived in obscene luxury and that they used these for excitement.

Another group thinks that it was part of sexual education in ancient

India: since most people visited temples, it was an appropriate place

for mass communication. Some scholars say that since Hinduism believes

in the efficacy of all four paths to Moksha (Dharma, Artha, Yoga, and

Kama), these sculptures were provided to assist in the last of these

four paths. Since these sculptures are limited to the outer walls of

the temples, some people interpret them as a symbolic gate to reaching

God. It is possible that at the time just preceding the construction

of these sculptures, monastic Buddhism was prevalent, people were

losing interest in the householder-life, and the temples were built to

attract people to sex and family life and to renew Hinduism.

 

Some others go to the extent of saying that the Khajuraho temples

themselves are built upon the model of an ultimate seductress. The

steps are like the feet, the Ardhmandapam are the knees, the Mandapam

represents the curvaceous thighs, the sanctum-sanctorum is like the

ovaries, and since it is very dark where the Linga is installed, it

represents the sexual organ, etc. For a long time, the pundits have

wondered why it was necessary to decorate a place of worship with

sexual material, but if one observes the materialistic (Loukika)

thoughts of Hinduism, there is nothing unnatural about them.

 

Why Not?

 

How can the Indians criticize the Mithuna (mating) sculptures while

worshiping Mahadev (Shiva) as a symbol of male and female organs? "All

of life is God's magic;" we are all parts of divinity; our scriptures

argue that to attain moksha, and to dedicate ourselves to dharma and

adhyatma, we should first experience sexual fulfillment. The one who

wrote the Kamasutra was none less than a sage! When the Gods

themselves cannot escape the web of erotic love (Kama), what about us

mere mortals? We have saints and mystic figures (Purana-Purusha) who

have sinned, we have sages who have abandoned their years of

renouncement for a beautiful woman, we have deities who have slept

with others' wives, we have those who have fathered deer, we have

those who have made love to and deceived even the Sun God, and we

certainly have those who have conceived before marriage. If one were

to make a list of these incidents that appear in Hindu scriptures, one

could put western societies to shame. If one

concedes that sex is an important and integral part of life, mortals

must experience it completely. Only perversions are excluded.

 

 

 

The temples here are also justly famous for their erotic sculpture.

Indeed, it is primarily for this that Khajuraho is known. Why would a

temple, a place of worship be adorned with such carving? For some

historians this is evidence of the decadence of the Chandela kings, a

hypothesis backed up by the fact that the Chandela dynasty did not

survive for long thereafter. However, the presence of erotic sculpture

elsewhere too may point to the fact that for the Hindu, life was meant

for living in all its aspects, and he merely depicted scenes of a fact

of life, without being conscious of any taboo attached, which after

all was a much later `invention'

 

 

 

All said and done, I think the explanation for the erotic sculptures

is very very simple. The eighty five temples depicted various

activities of life. Thus, sex, being a part of life activities has

been depicted.

 

Just that the constructors got extra active because of the thoughts

prevalent in those days.

 

Those were the days when the ideas of vatsa were prevalent which

have created an extra interest in the sex as a part of life and showed

that there is nothing taboo with it.

 

 

 

The temples have got nothing to do with tantra.

 

 

 

Kishore

 

 

 

http://www.mouthshut.com/readreview/59936-1.html

 

http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/erotica/khaju.htm

 

http://www.boloji.com/architecture/00010.htm

 

 

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