Khajuraho: Sacred Architecture and the Union of Opposites
The Khajuraho Group of Monuments — 85 temples built between 950 and 1150 CE by the Chandela dynasty in central India, of which 22 survive — is one of the most extraordinary achievements of medieval Indian religious architecture, and one of the most consistently misunderstood. The erotic sculptures (mithuna) that cover a portion of the temples' exteriors have attracted Western fascination out of proportion to their actual extent: they constitute perhaps 10% of the total sculptural program, whose majority depicts celestial beings, divine figures, epic scenes, and geometric ornamentation of extraordinary refinement. The theological meaning of the erotic sculpture is debated — some scholars see it as Tantric instruction, others as apotropaic protection against lightning (associated with Indra, who was believed to be deterred by erotic display), others as the representation of sacred union in the Shaiva tradition. All agree that it is not pornographic in any modern sense: it is sacred a...