The Religious Imagery of Khajuraho

by Devangana Desai

Because of undue association with erotic sculpture, Khajuraho's significant contribution to the religious art of the country is hardly noticed. This Medieval religious town of central India, now a lovely village, preserves an important group of temples which represents the Indian temple in its highly evolved form, both architecturally and conceptually. While the architectural survey of the temples is done by scholars, the present work is an iconological and interpretative study of images and their contextual significance. The book offers a closer view of the divinities and their configurations, particularly in the major Hindu temples of Khajuraho. It concentrates on the iconic schemes and pantheons of two magnificent temples, one a rare preserved shrine of Vaikuntha-Vishnu and the other dedicated to Siva. It highlights the important cult of the Yogin is and the syncretic role of Surya in Khajuraho's pantheon. In the process of viewing the temple as a whole and its images within a well-integrated scheme, several earlier non-specified images could be seen in their proper context and for the first time identified and interpreted. The images of planetary divinities on the podium around the Lakshmana temple, or the Sveta-dvipa scene (Back Cover) are some such new interpretations offered in the book.