I did this trip with my friends Anjani, Vijay, Vinay and Ashish. We started from Kanpur on Saturday morning at 5:30 A.M. The plan was to take the National Highway 86 and travel through Ghatampur, Hamirpur and Mahoba and then turn to left from and travel through Laudi and reach Khajuraho. All these city are small towns .The total distance would be about 225 Km.

 

The weather was pleasant. We wanted to cover maximum distance in the morning as it would get hot and dusty during the day. We traveled the first streatch of about 80 Km without and then stopped midway between Ghatampur and Hamirpur for a cu of tea. We had and Chai and with biscuits and some namkeen we had brought with us.

 

We resumed our journey and then again stopped at Laudi. We ate freshly samosa and chai. We were only 40 Km from Khajuraho.

 

We reached Khajuraho at around 12:30 P.M. We started looking for a decent budget hotel. We were approached by many pushy guides who offered to help us find cheap and good accommodation. After a little search we landed at Hotel Sidhartha, just in fromnt of Laxman Temple. We freshened up and started to visit the Temples. We would visit a few places in the evening and the rest on the next day. We wanted to leave back for Kanpur by late afternoon so that we can reach by night.

 

Khajuraho is a very small town with few hotels and no industry other than tourism. It is away from the noise and pollution of other typical Indian tourist attractions.

 

The place is full of Temples. All the temples were built between 950 and 1050 A.D.There are said to be 85 temples of which only 22 temples now survive.

 

It was the capital city of Chandella Dynasty which ruled the region from to.

Some of the Temples have erotic sculptures showing the positions of the Kamasutra (Kamasutra is ancient Indian text about sensuous and sensual pleasure and love, marriage, spirituality and sex) .The various postures very well depict the sexuality of woman. One would be surprised why such art forms have been used in a Hindu Temple, a religion known to be very restrictive in exposition of Sex in public. There are many theories which try to explain this, however I personally feel that these temples belonged to Tantric cult which believes that fulfillment of sexual desires is the first step towards spirituality and enlightenment, a theory very similar to the one preached by Osho Rajneesh. 

 

Most of the writings about Khajuraho that I have read seem to indicate that the Temples Carvings are about Sex. I feel what most of the writers have missed is that these sculptures are trying to say that Sex is not just fulfillment of carnal desires, it is a divine pleasure

 

I bought many postcard pictures of the Temples and the Art forms.

 

We visited Lakshman, Kandariya Mahadev and the Vishvantath Temples.

 

We reached back home at, tired but filled with joy. I seemed to have discovered a new in life.