The kings who said they came from the moon
From vassals to kings: the Chandelas served the Pratihara empire, then became independent in the tenth century under Dhanga, who ruled until about 1002.
A sacred city, not a fort: their strongholds were the hill forts of Kalinjar, Ajaigarh and Mahoba. Khajuraho was their religious and ceremonial centre.
- Dynasty
- Chandela, first feudatories of the Pratiharas
- Independent kings
- Tenth century, under Dhanga
- Strongholds
- Kalinjar, Ajaigarh and Mahoba
- Old name
- Kharjuravahaka, from the date palm
- At its height
- About 85 temples over 20 sq km
- A burst of building: inscriptions show many of the surviving temples were completed between about 970 and 1030 CE.
- Many faiths at once: they built for Shiva, Vishnu, the goddess and the sun, while their Jain merchants and ministers built for the tirthankaras, the great Jain teachers, often with the same carvers.
- A Rajasthan link: in 1182 the Chandela king Paramardi lost a great battle to Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer and Delhi. Bundelkhand still sings that war in the Alha Khand, the ballad of Alha and Udal.
- The long quiet: the sultans of Delhi took Kalinjar in the early thirteenth century, the Chandelas withdrew into the hills, and Khajuraho shrank to a village.
Never lost, only forgotten by outsiders
A traveller's note: the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta passed through in the fourteenth century and wrote of yogis living beside the temples.
1838: a British engineer, Captain T. S. Burt, was guided to the temples by local people, and his report brought them to scholars' attention.
- Cunningham's names: Alexander Cunningham surveyed the site in the following decades and gave us the names still used for the three groups.
- 1986: UNESCO listed the Khajuraho group of monuments as a World Heritage Site.
- Still in worship: the Matangeshwar temple and the Jain temples are living shrines, not museum pieces. Dress for them as you would for any temple.
How to read a Khajuraho temple in five minutes
The platform first: each temple stands on a tall stone terrace, the jagati. Walk around it clockwise before you climb the steps.
East to west: the rooms run in a line: a porch, one or more pillared halls called mandapas, a vestibule, and the dark sanctum.
- The womb-chamber: the sanctum is the garbhagriha, where the image lives. You move from bright light into darkness as you approach it.
- A path inside: the larger temples have a passage around the sanctum, so worshippers can circle the god inside as well as outside.
- The rising roofs: each room's roof is higher than the last, climbing like foothills to a peak.
- The peak: the shikhara, the curved spire over the sanctum, built up from dozens of smaller copies of itself.
- What it means: the temple is a model of the cosmic mountain, Meru or Kailash, with the god at its heart.
- The stone: fine buff and pinkish sandstone from the Ken river country, on granite foundations. Soft enough to carve deeply, hard enough to last a thousand years.
The sculpture, and the famous tenth
The surasundaris: the celestial women are the glory of Khajuraho. They take a thorn from a foot, write a letter, apply kohl and wring water from their hair.
The vyalas: rearing mythical lions, half beast and half guardian, set between the figures on the walls.
- Daily life: musicians, teachers with students, soldiers on the march and masons at work. A whole tenth-century world in stone.
- The mithuna couples: the erotic sculptures make up only around a tenth of the whole, often near the junction of hall and sanctum.
- Why they are there: Hindu thought counts kama, pleasure and desire, among the four legitimate aims of life. The loving couple was an auspicious image across Indian art.
- The scholars' readings: some link the boldest scenes to tantric ritual, others to the union of the soul and the divine, others to a king's temple showing his whole world.
- What they are not: none of the serious readings supports the idea that Khajuraho is a temple of sex, or that its gods are shown in these acts.
- With children: it is easy. A calm guide explains in context, and children are usually more interested in the elephants and monsters.
The Western Group, temple by temple
Lakshmana, the best preserved
Built: for Vishnu, around the middle of the tenth century, under Yashovarman and his son Dhanga.
- Look for: the four small corner shrines still standing on its platform, and the platform frieze of a whole army on the move: horsemen, elephants, hunters and porters.
- On the walls: some of the most beautiful surasundaris in India.
Kandariya Mahadeva, the summit
Built: for Shiva in the first half of the eleventh century, under Vidyadhara, remembered for standing up to Mahmud of Ghazni.
- Its size: a spire about 31 metres above a plinth four metres high, built up from eighty-four miniature spires.
- Inside: halls climbing towards the sanctum, with carved ceilings and doorways as fine as the walls.
- Our view: many think it the most perfect north Indian temple ever built, and we do not argue.
Devi Jagadambi and Chitragupta
- Devi Jagadambi: now dedicated to the goddess, with some of the most graceful figures on the site.
- Chitragupta: a temple to Surya, the sun god, shown driving his chariot of seven horses. It faces east, so the first light reaches deep inside.
Vishvanatha and its Nandi
- Built: for Shiva in Dhanga's time, around the turn of the eleventh century, a slightly smaller sister of Kandariya.
- Facing it: a great polished Nandi, Shiva's bull, in its own pillared pavilion, gazing at his lord.
Varaha, the boar covered in gods
- What it is: a single carved boar, Vishnu's Varaha incarnation, in a small open pavilion, its body covered with rows of tiny gods and sages.
- Why stop: one of the strangest and most moving sculptures in India, and easy to miss.
Matangeshwar, still in worship
Where: just outside the fenced garden.
- What it holds: a polished Shiva lingam about two and a half metres tall, worshipped every day.
- How to enter: shoes off, shoulders covered. This is Khajuraho as a living faith.
Chausath Yogini, the oldest stones
What it is: a ruined shrine to the sixty-four yoginis, fierce tantric goddesses, probably from the late ninth century.
- Unusual: built of rough granite, and rectangular, unlike the round yogini temples elsewhere in central India.
- When: late afternoon, when it is very quiet.
The Eastern Group, Jain temples and the old village
Parshvanath, the finest Jain temple
- Built: in the tenth century, the largest of the Digambara Jain temples, in a walled compound cared for by the community.
- Look for: some of the most delicate carving on the site, including surasundaris at their toilette, with far fewer amorous couples.
Adinath, Shantinath and Ghantai
Adinath: a small temple with a beautifully proportioned spire.
- Shantinath: rebuilt in modern times around old images, where Jain families come to pray.
- Ghantai: only a pillared porch survives, its columns carved with bells on chains. Ghanta means bell.
Javari, Vamana and the so-called Brahma temple
Javari: a slender Vishnu temple with an elegant spire.
- Vamana: dedicated to Vishnu's dwarf incarnation.
- The Brahma temple: so called locally, but in fact a Shiva shrine, built partly of granite.
The Southern Group, and our favourite last hour
Duladeo, the final flourish
- Built: for Shiva in the early twelfth century, one of the last major temples here.
- What to notice: heavier jewellery and stiffer figures. Art historians read in it the end of a tradition.
Chaturbhuj, facing the sunset
Built: for Vishnu around 1100, facing west, unlike almost every other temple here.
- Inside: a tall, serene four-armed Vishnu. The setting sun lights the image directly.
- Worth knowing: the one major temple at Khajuraho with no erotic sculpture at all.
Bijamandal, still underground
- What it is: an excavated mound revealing the base of a large temple that may never have been finished.
- Why go: a reminder of how much of Khajuraho may still lie under the fields.
The best hours and the best order
Day one: the Western Group from opening time, Matangeshwar on the way out, the museum opposite, then a long rest. Back at dusk to walk the garden again, or for the sound and light show.
Day two: the village and the Jain temples in the morning, Raneh Falls after lunch, and Chaturbhuj at sunset.
- First hour
- Western Group, Lakshmana and Kandariya
- Mid-morning
- The archaeological museum, in the shade
- Midday
- Rest at the hotel
- Afternoon
- Eastern Group and the village
- Last light
- Chaturbhuj in the Southern Group
- One night only: possible, but you will see the temples in the harsh midday light. We advise against it.
- The museum: loose sculptures at eye level, a perfect complement to the high carvings on the spires.
- More ideas: our things to do in Khajuraho and Khajuraho itinerary pages.
How to visit well
Hire a licensed guide: without one, the temples blur. With one, every wall tells a story.
Choose your guide carefully: we ask ours to give the musicians and masons as much time as the lovers, and to skip the nervous jokes.
- Dress for worship: cover shoulders and knees, especially at Matangeshwar and in the Jain compound, where you may be asked to remove leather.
- Shoes off on the platforms: where asked, and the stone gets hot by late morning, so go early.
- Bring binoculars: the best carving is often high on the spires.
- Ignore the booklet sellers: anyone offering cheap booklets of only the erotic carvings is selling a misunderstanding.
- For limited mobility: the platforms have steep steps, but the gardens are flat. We plan the order so you see the walls from the ground and climb only where it is worth it.
What most visitors miss
The army on Lakshmana's platform: a whole tenth-century military camp in a frieze at knee height.
The Varaha boar: a thousand tiny gods on one animal, in a pavilion most people walk past.
- Chitragupta at sunrise: the first light reaching the sun god in his sanctum.
- The village lanes: between the Eastern temples, everyday Khajuraho goes on as it has for centuries.
- Chausath Yogini: the oldest temple, rough granite, almost always empty.
- Chaturbhuj at sunset: Vishnu's face lit by the sun through the doorway.
The dance festival and the seasons
The festival: Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Manipuri and Kathakali on an open-air stage near the Western Group. Rooms book out many months ahead.
October to March: the season, warm by day. December and January nights can be cold for a dawn jeep in Panna.
- Dance festival
- About a week in late February
- Held since
- 1975
- Best months
- October to March
- Hottest
- May and June, often above 40°C
- Mahashivratri
- February or March, at Matangeshwar
- March and April: growing hot. We keep visits to the first and last hours.
- The monsoon: July to September is green and quiet, but the tiger reserve's core zones close.
- Mahashivratri: a fair fills the lanes around Matangeshwar. Our best time to visit Khajuraho page goes month by month.
Beyond the temples
Raneh Falls: about twenty kilometres away, where the Ken cuts a canyon through pink, red and grey granite.
Panna Tiger Reserve: under an hour from town, along the Ken River. Its tigers were poached out by 2009, then brought back from other parks, one of India's great recovery stories.
- What else lives there: leopards, sloth bears, gharials and vultures on the cliffs. Sightings are less certain than at Ranthambore, and the forest is more beautiful for it.
- Kalinjar: a long day's trip to the Chandela hill fortress, with rock-cut sculpture and a Shiva temple on its cliff.
- Our safaris: see tiger and leopard safaris for how we choose naturalists and zones.
Getting there, and where to stay
By air: Khajuraho Airport is about three kilometres from town, with flights to Delhi and, in some seasons, Varanasi.
From Orchha: about four to five hours east by road through farmland and granite hills. Read Orchha, the forgotten capital.
- By train: an overnight train runs from Delhi, but we prefer the fast Gatimaan Express to Jhansi and a night in Orchha.
- On to Varanasi: best by air when connections allow. See Rajasthan and Varanasi.
- In town: large, well-run modern hotels close to the Western Group. Ask for an upper floor with views of the spires.
- By the forest: Taj's Pashan Garh on the edge of Panna, or a small conservation-run lodge on the Ken. Compare them in where to stay in Orchha and Khajuraho.
Who will love Khajuraho
Lovers of sculpture and architecture: nowhere else in India shows the nagara temple at this level, in this number, in one walk.
Families: children love the elephants, monsters and the giant boar, and Panna adds a jungle.
- Travellers crossing central India: it is the natural partner to Orchha and Gwalior on the way from Rajasthan to the Ganga.
- Photographers: the spires against a clear winter sky, and the Southern Group at sunset.
- Not for nightlife: the town is small and sleeps early.
- Not for a rushed stop: if you can only give it a few midday hours, save it for another journey.