Khajuraho, the temple city of central India , is famous throughout the world for its exquisitely carved temples in stones. Thousands of visitors and tourists from all over the world flock together to envisage this immortal saga of Hindu art and culture engraved in stone by shilpies (stone craftsmen) a millenium ago.

The temples of Khajuraho are India 's unique gift to the world, representing, as they do, a paean to life, to love, to joy; perfect in execution and sublime in expression. Life, in every form and mood, has been capured in stone, testifying not only to the craftsman's artistry but also to the extraordinary breadth of vision of the Chandela Rajputs under whose rule the temples were conceived and constructed. The Khajuraho temples were built in the short span of a hundred years, from 950-1050AD in a truly inspired burst of creativity. Of the 85 original temples, 22 have survived till today to constitute one of the world's great artistic wonders.

Khajuraho is a small village-described in one guidebook as "on the road from nowhere to nowhere"-- in the Chattarpur District of northern Madhya Pradesh. It is renowned for a magnificent collection of Hindu temples built by the Chandella dynasty about one thousand years ago, when it was their capital. At the end of the 11th century Chandellas shifted their political center to hill forts-doubtless because they could be better defended. With this loss of patronage Khajuraho gradually lapsed into oblivion, it was still vital as late as the 14th century, when it was visited by the Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta. The same source reports that it was rediscovered in 1838 by a British engineer, who heard about it from his palanquin bearers, that between 1842-47 the Maharaja of Chattarpur sponsored renovations at the site, and that since the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) has been responsible for them. The temples were designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1986.

The Western Group of temples is the earliest and most important. A relatively small area holds the three largest and most architecturally significant temples--the Lakshmana (built around 950 C.E.), the Vishvanatha (about 1000 C.E.), and the Kandariya Mahadev temple (about 1025 C.E)--as well as smaller temples including the Mahadeva, Devi Jagadamba, and Chitragupta temples. The Eastern Group of temples has a pair of Jain temples and the Vamana temple, and the Southern Group of temples has the Duladeo and Caturbhuj temples. The Eastern and Southern groups were both built later than the group, after the builders' creative genius had reached its peak. Most of the temples are built of sandstone, which is very easily shaped, and both exterior and interior walls are covered with sculptural figures--many of them portraying women, and some of them portraying explicit sexual scenes.

Khajuraho's Erotic Arts :
Khajuraho is world famous for its mithuna ("pair") sculptures, images, which have been euphemistically described as a "loving couple." A more candid characterization would be sculptures depicting explicit sexuality in pairs or larger groups, with occasional forays into bestiality, as at the Lakshmana Temple .