SEXY TEMPLES

When you are travelling around India, you are surrounded by people, going about their business (often literally). It’s not until you step back that you notice that most of the people you see walking around are men, a gender bias especially visible in the more rural parts of India, like Rajasthan. Women are there but they are often observers, rather than equal members of society, hidden behind doors and colourful veils. For a land known for the Kama Sutra, public life in many parts of India is distinctly non-sexual, conservative rather than erotic, tedious rather than tantric.

There are still flashes of sex in India- a topless women carrying water down the street in Jhansi, secret smiles shared on a train and the sculptures on the temples of Khajuraho. The town of Khajuraho has made its name on the back of its famous temples that have statues depicting sexual activities and lustful behaviour. The temples serve as a fine example of medieval Hindu and Jain architectural styles with depictions of royalty and deities, plants and animals but no-one comes here for the architecture. The crowds are here to see the famed erotic sculptures that make up about 10% of the total number of sculptures on the temples.

Temple at Khajuraho.

It seems all orientations and fetishes were embraced here, man on woman, woman on woman, man on man and even man on horse are shown in the statues. All of the women have large breasts and broad hips, men are generously endowed. The figures jut out from their sandstone monuments, seductively going about their everyday business, washing their hair, playing games, putting on make-up, farming, making pottery and of course, making love. The temples are sometimes mistakenly called the Kama sutra temples. This is misleading, as the statues do not appear inside any of the temples (who are dedicated to Hindu and Jain gods) nor do they follow the intricate positions seen in that book. Like so many ancient things, the point of the erotic sculptures may never be known.

Man seeking horse

Without the 22 remaining temples (85 were originally built), Khajuraho would be just another small, dusty, unmemorable Indian town. The temples were built by the Chandela dynasty between 950-1050 AD and abandoned by 1300 AD. The temples make the town and give many people a livelihood so the current residents must be thankful for their forebears who tried to upkeep the temples as best as they could. Even with their efforts, the complex was largely overgrown by jungle and date palm trees (who gave the town its name, khajur meaning date in Hindi) until the English started to clear the site in the 19^th Century, a process accelerated after independence in 1947. Now, the site is all manicured lawn, ornamental trees and flowerbeds.

Am I too late for the orgy?

20,000 people call the town home which makes it a nice size to explore, either on foot or by bike. One morning, I came across a group of buffalos wallowing in a mud-pit and later startled a mongoose as it just evaded my bike as it charged across the road. Another morning, I met a guy who took me to visit a school. The children were all very polite, although the school was rudimentary at best, small rooms made from mud walls with little in the way of equipment or teaching materials. The guy who brought me there seemed genuine but there are warnings that donations often go into the hands of teachers and principals, with not much going to the students or to the school. Hopefully, some of my small donation trickled down to the students.

Wallowing

Talking to the locals (or at least the men) was the same as everywhere in India. Half the town seemed to have an uncle who lives in Auckland and the other half had a brother who owned a restaurant where we could get a good deal. Here, instead of the usual postcards and knick-knacks, the touts sold Kama sutra playing cards, key rings with moveable penises, fridge magnets depicting sex acts. There is an air of desperation. The touts are pushy and it’s a little disconcerting to have a penis key-ring pushed into your face, said appendage then performing a robust sexual act. 30 identical souvenir shops fight for your custom, travel agents fight to sell you bus tickets. A “maybe later’ only encourages them to attack you more vehemently on your way past them later, as if ‘maybe later’ was a legal contract that you would look in their shop. Women give you flowers for “free” and then want a donation if you take them. Luckily, our hotel which was run by a nice Jain man had large, lovely gardens where you could go and relax with a book, away from the touts. If you were lucky, you might even see a pair of mongooses playing. That was a rare peaceful place in Khajuraho though. Sex sells and Khajuraho knows how to sell it.