Khajuraho

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The love images of Khajuraho are the symbols of the ritual of the

magical cults of the Tantra, of the Kaulas and the Kapalikas, who

believed in attainment of the divine through the ecstasy of sexual

union.(The Khajuraho Dance Festival is held from in March-Feb)

Khajuraho

Of the love of man and woman,

there are few representations anywhere, so tender and full of charm as

those on the temples of Khajuraho.

 

In the maze of each wall,

one can search for immortality in certain images, which are 'as though

breathing', according to the highest ideals of imaginative skill of

our

ancient craftsmen.

 

Mohini looks into the mirror

with her head inclined in the Narcissus mood of a young girl awakening

to her own beauty.

 

A hero, with the lion shoulders

and the profile of a God, is bending his head graciously over the

beloved,

who looks up to the lover, until their four eyes meet.

 

The body of another lover

is fused in coition with that of the heroine, in the most sensitive

adoration,

where each is both.

 

Still another male is protecting

his frightened female companion against a monkey.

 

A dancer with a cylindrical

body is tying the bells on her feet, to get ready for the sway of her

limbs

in dance.

 

The musicians play on the

flute, the drums and the cymbals.

 

There are orgies of love-making

in the palaces of kings, with the shy maids-in-waiting, standing or

helping,

with faces slightly averted from the privacy of the union.

 

The play-function of sex,

which Vatsyayana had insisted upon, apart from sex for the procreation

of new life, is shown with an abandon of ecstasy everywhere.

 

If one brings to one's view

of the toilet of the brides, the conjugal embraces, and the love

potencies,

the warmth of passion of the private act of blissful connection, then

the

sculptures will only confirm one's own personal joy in the expression

of

the act of desire, in all our own longings, aspirations and

fulfillments.

 

But if people bring to Khajuraho,

the cold stare of erotic curiosity from a prurient curiosity, without

any

heart, then the whole panorama on the walls, congested with the lush

imagery

of love-play will fall flat on their empirical egos.

 

Ostensibly, the intention

of the builders was not to afford to the vulgar, compensatory

pleasures,

such as they have never enjoyed in life, but to celebrate the

happiness

of loving.

 

There are certainly a number

of postures, which look odd to those who have never been possessed by

passion.

There are some conjugations which only adepts, with full control in

their

minds and bodies and hearts could perform. And there are a number

of jokes, such as the inferior craftsmen in all the temples and

cathedrals

of the world perpetuated from their lowest consciousness.

 

But the dominance of Gods

and Goddesses Brahma and his consort, of Vishnu, and Laxmi, Shiva and

Parvati

provide the key symbolism of sacred love. Thus the heroes and

heroines,

approaching each other for consummation of marriage, are only the

prototypes

of perfect couples, achieving, through the physical act, the oneness

in

which lies salvation. The One Supreme God had, by union with his

consort, created the whole universe. Every pair of human beings has

the corresponding desire to fuse themselves into each other and had

become One.

 

There is some mystery about

how, in the 10th and 11th century (from 950-1050 A.D), in a flat

plateau

of the Vindhya mountains, there came to be the eighty great temples,

out

of which only nine important ones have survived.

 

We must remember that, in

the early mediaeval period, this vitality adoration of the impulses,

ideas

and feelings, connected with the potent phallus of the god Shiva, had

become

the part of the indigenous Hindu dharma of the north. There had also

been some synthesis of this with Greek paganism, in the classical

renaissance

of the Gupta Empire (about 300-550 A.D). The recognition had come

that the Hindu dharma had originally been built on the frank

recognition

that the world came to be through the togetherness of the male and

female.

The Buddha had, indeed, rejected existence through the awareness of

the

pain of life. The early Jain followers of Mahavira had suggested

mortification of flesh to attain liberation. But the ascetic

attitudes

of these two revolts against the Hindu faith, had been dissolved by

Brahminical

interpretation, in the books called the Puranas of the human

situation.

Said the Matsya Purana: ""The divine and the human forms are born of

parents......

The divine form is endowed with enlightenment. The human form is

not so well endowed"". Further, the Brahmins had shown how,

in the ordinary family life (grihasta) salvation in the transcendental

ego, that is to say , ascent to the Supreme God, is possible, by

tasting

the fruits of life: 'The Worshipper, who attains knowledge of Brahman,

is attended by hundreds of celestial damsels. One hundred carry

scented

powders, saffron, turmeric in their hands. One hundred carry fruits

and one hundred carry various ornaments and garlands. They adorn

him with ornaments befitting Brahman the Supreme God himself. Thus

adorned with Brahman ornaments and knowing Brahman, he goes to

Brahman'.

 

The holyness of physical

connection implied in this interpretation had given sanctions to the

poets

of the Renaissance, opened their sensibilities to each feeling,

emotion

and mood. Being part of god, everything in man's heart was an

expression

of the nature of god. And in the making of His images was

liberation.

As against the Yoga of prayer and contemplation, to achieve fusion

with

reality, there was Bhoga, the tasting of the flavours of food, wine

and

body, to seek union.

 

There were millions of forms,

in various symbolic attitudes, illustrating poetical metaphors, with

double

meanings, even before the Christian era.

 

Thus each human act of grace,

gentleness, a smile, a kiss, an embrace, mother giving suck to a

child,

had become a terra-cotta image, enshrined in each home.

 

The 'otherness' of the higher

self could be achieved by concentration on the 'I-ness' of the image.

 

The proliferation of the

various ways of worship, according tot he approach of each cult of the

Hindus, to transcend the human situation and ennoble it, led to the

creation

of myriads of unique images.

 

The love images of Khajuraho

are the symbols of the ritual of the magical cults of the Tantra, of

the

Kaulas and the Kapalikas, who believed in attainment of the divine

through

the ecstasy of sexual union.

 

Obviously, the patronage

of the Chandela Dynasty led to the elaboration of the phallus and its

symbols,

as well as of the loving figures in relief, beyond the sensuous

imagery

of the Gupta brick temple of Bhitargaon, to a romantic-classical art

of

Khajuraho.

 

The dense woods of the Vindhyas,

with lakes interspersed here and there amid ant low hills, afforded

just

the kind of idyllic landscapes, for the carnivals of dance, music and

love

play. The plentiful harvest, the abundance of fruit and flower, the

mineral wealth including precious stones, provided the basis of luxury

to the kingdom. The patronage of the kings gave incentive to the

practice of various skills. And it is likely that, apart from the

local craftsmen, members of itinerant guilds from Uttar Pradesh and

Rajasthan

were called here to build the temples even before the Chandelas.

Certainly, a panegyric to the King Dhanga, on a stone of the

Vishwanatha

Temple, gives evidence of generous endowment by him and other

Chandelas,

for various shrines. And legend has it that hundreds of beautiful

Devadasis, or dancing girls, were fetched from far distances for the

ritual

of phallic worship. The Sursundaris on the walls of the Temples were

obviously modeled on these lovely women.

 

The panel showing Vishwakarma,

the god of the crafts on .the Lakshmana Temple, clearly points to the

extension

of the inheritance by the master builders, of the Gupta tradition,

though

the fusion of architecture and sculpture. 'The House and Body of

God', says Dr. Kramarisch, 'is envisaged articulate in all its

parts......

The form of the images convey at the unique constellation under which

the

images were beheld inwardly by the sculptor and were alive in the

consciousness

of the people. The order in which these are placed belongs

to total edifice of thought and aspiration, towards the ultimate aim

of

life, towards which also, symbolically, the curves of the Sikhara

rise'.

 

The innermost shrine is in

the form of a square peasant hut. But it is formalised into a

miniature

cosmos, radiating in all direction through the images on its walls,

and

upwards to heaven, with the tapering Mount Menru, which probes the

sky.

 

The technique of carving

is thus neither 'primitivist' nor 'naturalist' in the western sense,

which

copies the outer aspects of human beings. It is inspired by intense

visualisation, from within, in the picture language called

dhyanamatra,

through forms made symbolic, to the extent to which the limbs seemed

to

be informed with energies, movements and powers, as in the ideal

life.

There is no 'objective reality' here. Only expression of inner

feeling,

in curvaceous line, volumes and coherences, which approximate to the

rhythmic

possibilities of the desire image.

 

Some of the most perfect

realisations of integral form in the whole of world art are in situ on

the walls of the temples of Khajuraho.

Original Source : Directorate of Tourism, Government of Madhya Pradesh