How to plan your days in Khajuraho
Three groups of temples: Khajuraho is a small town built around them.
The Western Group: the largest and grandest, in a walled garden at the edge of the town.
The Eastern Group: with the Jain temples, about a kilometre or two east through the old village.
- Western Group
- Walled garden at the edge of town
- Eastern Group
- About 1-2 km east, through the old village
- Southern Group
- A short drive south
- Panna
- Under an hour away
- Allow
- Two nights, or four with Panna
- Everything is close: so you can come and go as the light allows rather than trying to see it all at once.
- Mornings and late afternoons: for the temples, when the low sun brings the sculpture into relief and the sandstone is cool underfoot.
- The middle of the day: for the museums, a long lunch or a rest at your hotel.
- One dawn, at least: for the forest at Panna.
- Read first: the parent Khajuraho guide, because the temples make far more sense once you understand how they were built and what the sculpture means.
- How long: two nights is the minimum we suggest. Four nights, with two by the forest, is better.
- Pacing and seasons: our Khajuraho itinerary shows how we pace each length, and our guide to the best time to visit Khajuraho explains the seasons.
Inside the Western Group
- Kandariya Mahadeva
- Shiva, first half of the 11th century
- Lakshmana
- Vishnu, consecrated mid-10th century
- Chitragupta
- Surya, faces east
- Varaha
- Boar pavilion facing Lakshmana
- Survivors
- About 25 of some 85 temples
The Western Group at opening time, with a guide
The one thing not to miss: and the one thing most people do badly.
- How to do it: hire a licensed guide, arrive as the gates open, and walk the platforms clockwise, as the builders intended, before you step inside any temple.
- Reading a wall: a good guide shows you the gods in their niches, the guardians of the directions, the celestial women, the musicians and soldiers, and where the famous couples sit in the whole scheme.
- Why it matters: without a guide, the temples blur. With one, every wall becomes a story.
The inner halls of Kandariya Mahadeva
The finest temple here: the largest at Khajuraho, built for Shiva in the first half of the eleventh century.
Go inside: most visitors photograph its great spire and move on.
- The halls: they rise in height as you walk west towards the sanctum, and the ceilings are carved like lotus flowers opening.
- The sanctum doorway: a dense, beautiful frame of river goddesses and attendants.
- Give it a minute: let your eyes adjust to the dark, and the carving appears out of the stone.
The army frieze of the Lakshmana temple
The best preserved temple: dedicated to Vishnu and consecrated in the mid tenth century, with its four corner shrines still standing.
- Before you climb the steps: walk slowly round the base of the platform.
- The frieze: a tenth-century army on the march, with horsemen, elephants, porters, hunters and camp followers.
- Why it moves us: it is as close as you will come to seeing the Chandela world in motion.
The Varaha, a boar covered in gods
Where: in a small open pavilion facing the Lakshmana temple.
What it is: a single great boar, Vishnu in his Varaha form, carved in polished sandstone.
- Look closely: its whole body is covered in tiny rows of gods and sages.
- Why stop: one of the strangest and most moving sculptures in India, and children in particular are fascinated by it.
- Time needed: five minutes, and almost everyone walks past.
Sunrise at the Chitragupta temple
Dedicated to Surya: the sun god, and its sanctum holds an image of Surya in his chariot drawn by seven horses.
- It faces east: if you are at the gate as it opens on a clear winter morning, walk straight to it and watch the light reach inside.
- Why it matters: a small, quiet moment that ties the whole site to the movement of the sun.
The Archaeological Museum
Where: opposite the Western Group.
What it holds: sculptures gathered from fallen and ruined temples across Khajuraho.
- Eye level: stand face to face with celestial women, dancing Ganeshas and fierce guardian figures that, on the temples, are high above your head.
- When: the perfect place for the warm middle of the day, and it makes the temples you have just seen much easier to understand.
- Look for: the dancing Ganesha, and the larger sculptures from temples that no longer stand.
- The survivors: they are reminders that the twenty-five temples you see today are what remains of about eighty-five.
A way of looking at the sculpture
Start from a distance: see how the roofs climb from the porch in the east to the great spire over the sanctum, like foothills rising to a peak.
Then read the walls in bands: walk up to the platform and look from the bottom up.
The lowest bands: processions, animals and daily life.
- The middle bands: the richest, with the gods in their niches and, between them, the celestial women, the surasundaris, who are the true glory of Khajuraho.
- Above them: smaller figures and the clustered miniature spires rise into the sky.
- Look for the human details: a mason at work with his tools, a teacher with a student, a soldier's horse, a monkey stealing fruit.
- The carvers: they knew anatomy, movement and emotion, and they worked in a stone that let them cut deep.
- The erotic scenes: they make up only a small part of the whole and sit in particular places on the walls. A good guide shows them calmly, in context, with no more and no less time than the rest.
- Go deeper: our parent Khajuraho guide explains the scholars' readings.
- The same vocabulary in Rajasthan: our guide to reading temple architecture.
Living shrines and quieter temples
- Matangeshwar
- Lingam about 2.5 metres tall, in daily worship
- Chausath Yogini
- Oldest temple here, probably late 9th century
- Jain temples
- Cared for by the Digambara community
- Chaturbhuj
- Faces west, no erotic sculpture
- Dress
- Cover shoulders and knees
Morning worship at Matangeshwar
Where: just outside the Western Group's fence.
What it is: plain outside and alive inside, with a polished Shiva lingam about two and a half metres tall.
- A living temple: local people worship here every day, as they have for a thousand years.
- Go early: when the priests are performing the morning rituals and families arrive with milk and flowers.
- Etiquette: take off your shoes, cover your shoulders and stand quietly at the side.
- On Mahashivratri: a great fair fills the lanes around it.
The Chausath Yogini on its rise
Where: beyond the Shivsagar tank.
What it is: the ruined shrine to the sixty-four yoginis, fierce goddesses of tantric worship.
- The oldest temple at Khajuraho: probably from the late ninth century.
- How it is built: of rough granite rather than sandstone, around an open rectangular courtyard of small cells.
- When to go: few visitors come, and in the late afternoon it is very still.
- Sit and look: from the platform, back at the spires of the Western Group across the water.
Lalguan Mahadeva and the Shivsagar tank
Where: a short walk west of the Chausath Yogini, by the fields.
- What it is: a small ruined temple of granite and sandstone, one of the early temples of Khajuraho, from the time before the great sandstone shrines.
- In the evening: combine it with a walk along the Shivsagar tank, when families come to sit by the water and the temple spires turn pink.
The Jain temples of the Eastern Group
Still in worship: cared for by the Digambara community.
Parshvanath: some of the most delicate carving on the whole site, including celestial women applying makeup and writing letters.
- Adinath: a smaller temple with a beautifully proportioned spire.
- Shantinath: where families come to pray.
- Etiquette: dress modestly and remove leather belts and bags if asked.
- The same faith in sandstone: if you know the marble temples of Ranakpur, the comparison is fascinating.
A village walk to Javari, Vamana and the Brahma temple
Javari: slender, with an elegant spire.
Vamana: dedicated to Vishnu's dwarf incarnation.
- The Brahma temple: so known locally, but in fact a Shiva temple.
- Where: scattered among the houses and fields of old Khajuraho village.
- How: walk between them with a guide in the early morning, past buffalo, small shrines and children on their way to school.
- Why: it is the best way to feel that Khajuraho is a place where people live.
Sunset at the Southern Group
Chaturbhuj faces west: unlike almost every other temple here, so in the late afternoon the setting sun lights its tall, serene image of four-armed Vishnu directly.
- No erotic sculpture: it is the one major temple at Khajuraho without any.
- Duladeo nearby: one of the last temples the Chandelas built, with richly jewelled figures and a finely carved doorway.
- Our favourite last hour: of any Khajuraho day, with almost no other visitors.
Khajuraho after dark
The Khajuraho Dance Festival
When: every year since 1975, for about a week in the second half of February.
What happens: India's leading classical dancers perform on an open-air stage in front of the Western Group, with the floodlit temples behind them.
- The dances: Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri and Kathakali share the programme.
- Book months ahead: if you can time your visit for it, do, because the town fills up.
- More detail: our page on the best time to visit Khajuraho.
The sound and light show
What it is: an evening show in the Western Group telling the story of the Chandelas and their temples, with the spires lit in turn.
- Our view: old-fashioned and a little theatrical, but on a clear night with the stars above the temples it is a pleasant hour.
- For children: they usually enjoy it.
An evening by Shivsagar
At sunset: local families walk down to the Shivsagar tank beside the Western Group.
- The stalls: the lanes nearby fill with small stalls selling tea, sweets and roasted peanuts.
- Join them: sitting by the water as the temple spires fade into the dusk is a simple, lovely way to end a day.
Bundelkhand culture and food
Tribal and folk art at the Adivart museum
What it is: the Madhya Pradesh government's museum of tribal and folk art, near the Western Group.
- What it holds: paintings, sculpture, metalwork and household objects from the many communities of central India, including reconstructed village houses.
- Why go: a fine contrast to the temples, and a good place for a warm afternoon.
A Bundeli meal
The cooking: simple farm food of wheat, gram, millet and seasonal greens, rich with ghee and buttermilk.
Bafauri: look for bafauri, steamed gram-flour dumplings.
- Ember-baked bread: wheat flatbreads baked over cow-dung embers, cousins of our own baati in Rajasthan.
- How to find it: most hotel kitchens cook north Indian food, so we ask them, or a village family, to prepare a Bundeli meal on request.
- The Alha Khand: in the monsoon or early autumn, ask whether any village singers are performing it, the ballad of the Mahoba heroes Alha and Udal, who fought for the Chandela king against Prithviraj Chauhan.
- For us: coming from Rajasthan, it is a strange and wonderful thing to hear that war sung from the other side.
Cycling the village at dawn
Why a bicycle: Khajuraho is flat, small and quiet in the early morning, and it is the most pleasant way to move between the groups.
- The route: from the Western Group through the old village to the Eastern Group and on to the Southern Group, with stops for tea.
- The same pleasure in Rajasthan: our page on cycling the old cities at dawn.
Tigers, gorges and the Ken River
- Tiger reserve
- Since 1994
- Tigers lost
- By 2009, to poaching
- Raneh Falls
- About 20 km from Khajuraho
- Core zone
- Closed through the monsoon
- Also look for
- Leopards, sloth bears, vultures, gharials
A jeep safari in Panna Tiger Reserve
A recovery story: Panna lost its tigers to poaching by 2009, and their return, with tigers brought from other parks, is one of the great recovery stories of Indian conservation.
Drives: morning and afternoon, with a good naturalist, give you a real chance of a tiger.
- Other animals: leopards, sloth bears, nilgai, chinkara and a long list of birds.
- Honest odds: sightings are less certain than in Ranthambore, and that is part of Panna's charm.
- Seasons: the core zone closes through the monsoon.
- Naturalists: our page on tiger and leopard safaris explains how we choose them.
A boat on the Ken
In season: a quiet boat trip on the Ken River inside Panna shows you the forest from the water.
- What you may see: mugger crocodiles basking on the rocks, kingfishers, storks, and sometimes deer coming down to drink.
- When: lovely in the late afternoon, and a gentle contrast to the jeep.
Raneh Falls and the Ken gorge
The canyon: about twenty kilometres from Khajuraho, the Ken cuts deep through crystalline granite in bands of pink, red and grey.
After the monsoon: water pours over the rock in many falls.
- In the dry months: the gorge becomes a gallery of polished stone.
- Go in the afternoon: when the low sun warms the colours of the rock.
- At its most beautiful: early in the dry season, when some water still flows and pools of green water lie between the coloured stone.
- Safety: the rocks are slippery and the drops are sheer, so stay behind the railings and keep children close.
The gharials of the Ken
The sanctuary: the Ken Gharial Sanctuary, close to Raneh, protects the gharial, the slender-snouted river crocodile that survives in only a few rivers of India.
- No promises: sightings depend on the season and the water level.
- The pleasure: scanning the sandbanks with binoculars.
Vultures and Pandav Falls
Vultures: Panna's cliffs are home to nesting vultures, now rare across much of India, and birders come to watch them soaring along the gorges.
- Pandav Falls: on the edge of the park, it drops into a pool under an overhang of rock.
- The legend: small caves there are linked to the Pandava brothers of the Mahabharata.
- When: a pleasant stop on the way to or from the forest.
Day trips from Khajuraho
Orchha, the Bundela capital
Distance: about four to five hours west by road.
- What it is: a riverside capital of palaces, temples and royal cenotaphs on the Betwa, and one of the most beautiful small towns in India.
- How we do it: it is too far for a comfortable day trip, so we usually spend a night or two there on the way in or out.
- Read more: our Orchha guide.
Kalinjar, the Chandela stronghold
Distance: a long day's excursion into Uttar Pradesh, for lovers of forts.
The fort: a vast hill fortress held by the Chandelas and fought over for centuries.
- Its history: fought over by almost every power that passed through central India, from the Delhi sultans to the Mughals, and its walls carry the marks of each.
- What to see: cliffs that hide rock-cut sculpture, tanks and the Neelkanth temple to Shiva.
- Our favourite parts: the rock-cut figures of Shiva near the Neelkanth temple, and the cool tanks cut into the plateau.
- How: leave early, take a picnic and a good guide, and allow a full day.
Ajaigarh, the fort on the hill
What it is: another Chandela stronghold, crowning a flat-topped hill beyond Panna.
- At the summit: ruined temples and gateways, and a steep climb to reach them.
- The mood: wild, empty and atmospheric.
- Who it suits: we take only guests who are happy with a long walk up and down.
Panna town and its temples
What it is: the old capital of a Bundela kingdom, known for its diamond mines.
- The temples: including the great white Prannath temple, the main shrine of the Pranami faith.
- Pair it: an easy addition to a day in the forest.
Matching the experiences to the traveller
For art lovers: two mornings in the Western Group with an art historian guide, the Archaeological Museum, the Eastern Group and sunset at Chaturbhuj. Add the Adivart museum for contrast.
For families: the Varaha boar, the Lakshmana army frieze, the sound and light show, cycling between the groups, Raneh Falls and two days of jeep safaris and boat rides in Panna.
- For couples: dawn at Chitragupta, a slow afternoon at your hotel, sunset at the Southern Group and, in February, an evening at the dance festival.
- For pilgrims and the spiritually curious: morning worship at Matangeshwar, the Jain temples in prayer, the Chausath Yogini and, on Mahashivratri, the great fair around Matangeshwar.
- For wildlife lovers: two or three nights by Panna, with dawn and afternoon drives, the Ken by boat, the vultures of the gorges and the gharial sanctuary, and the temples fitted in at the edges.
- For fort lovers: Kalinjar and Ajaigarh as long day trips, and two nights in Orchha on the way.
- Beyond Orchha: Gwalior, as on our Rajasthan, Orchha and Khajuraho journey.
Neighbourly advice for your days
Hire a licensed guide: for the Western Group and, ideally, for the Eastern and Southern Groups too. It transforms the visit.
Go early and late: at midday the sandstone glares and the platforms are hot underfoot, even in winter.
Dress for worship: cover shoulders and knees at Matangeshwar and the Jain temples, where worship continues every day.
- Ignore the touts: offering booklets of the erotic carvings only. They are selling a misunderstanding of the temples.
- Bring binoculars: for the high carvings on the spires and for the birds in Panna.
- Carry a scarf or light shawl: it covers your shoulders in shrines and keeps off the dust on a jeep safari.
- Combine the temples with the forest: two nights in town and two by Panna make the most balanced stay.
- Choosing a stay: our guide to luxury hotels in Khajuraho and where to stay in Orchha and Khajuraho help you choose.
- Before you go: read our temple etiquette guide, especially if you plan to enter the shrines in worship.
