Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Jan 7: In and around Khajuraho (part 2 of 3)

10 rupees gives you access to one of the most fantastic examples of
architecture you will find in India. The ASI board claims that this is
the finest in India, but that's a false claim. In my opinion, the
crown goes to Halebid(or is it Belur?) temples just on the basis of
their fine stone carvings! (one Spaniard I met completely agreed with
this observation)

There are more than 12 temples inside the complex. One better than the
other, but I am surely not competent to make this distinction. There
are many things a tourist can do here. Just sitting around watching
all the temples, both from inside and outside is bound to keep one
occupied for more than a couple of hours. Taking a close look at all
the temples is bound to take a whole day, I'm sure. A half drunk,
ill-mannered tourist from Jabalpur is trying to trying to strke a
friendship with one of the foreign ladies(they heavily outnumber the
desis here). But what to do? His broken english seems to confuse this
korean, whose english is equally suspect. So he seeks help from me!
I'm not in a mood to oblige - afterall, I'm here to watch the temples.
This displeases him. It needed a stern threat from me to report his
behaviour to the guards to shut him up for good.

Ah, reminds me - I haven't described the temples. Khajuraho is rather
well known for the erotic sculptures. Going by this, if you expect to
see entire temples dedicated to kamadeva, then you are likely to be
disappointed! They are there, yes, and found mostly on the outside of
the temple. The rest of the carvings are of the popular gods. Of
particular interest to me are the circular carvings on the shikharas.

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