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Passion in Stone

Kunda Dixit of Inter Press Service reports from Khajuraho
***Erotic sculptures in central India endure the passage of time. ***
Exactly why the Chandela Dynasty of central India went into an orgy of temple building at the beginning of this millennium, no one is really sure.
The question is intriguing because the temples of Knaju raho contain some of the most exquisite stone sculptures and erotic art in India
Voluptuous celestial ny mphs prance across the in-
tricate balconies and columns of the 40-metre high temples. One thousand years after they were chiselled, beads on the necklace of Shiva or delicate folds of mi^lin on devotees are still sharply etched in
Sensual figures, youthful and vigorous, are captured in various stages of sexual congress. They writhe along the friezes, movements languid and free — it is a wild celebration of the act of lovemaking.
The gaze on the faces of the human and divine lovers is tender and tranquil, striking a harmonious balance between body and soul, between the mundane and spiritual.
When the Chandela dynasty collapsed in the 12th century, the temples of Khajuraho were taken over by jungle. In 1838, a British engineer travelling through the region chanced upon them. Removing the vines, he was shocked by what he saw.
"Some of the sculptures here are extremely indecent and offensive, which I was at first.much surprised to find in temples," he wrote.
The temples were partially restored in 1953. Later, hotels and an airport were built to open up the area to visitors and pilgrims. Today, the Khajuraho temples have been declared a world heritage site by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organsa-tion (UNESCO).
"Perhaps no other collection of medieval art used the body-metaphor as voluptuously as these sculptures," says Pramila Poddar, author of a book on Khajuraho, called Temples of Love.
She adds: "Unabashed, incredibly frank, the erotic quality of Khajuraho is dis turbing, but also cleansing. This is the love sanctioned by
the gods, a love unaccompanied by guilt and one which knows only the language of pleasure '
Erotic carvings first appeared on temples in India 2,000 years ago, and carried through the period when poet philosopher Vatsyayan was putting finishing touches to the Hindu manual of lovemaking, the Kamasutra
But the unknown masters of Khajuraho took consider able artistic license over and beyond existing norms by letting their imagination t,un wild. They depicted unrestrained combinations and formidable feats of sexual acrobatics, even sneaking in a wry sense of humour into their erotica.
Historians say one reason for the fecundity of Khajuraho art is that in the ninth century the subcontinent was emerging from centuries of austere Buddhist mores. On the path to enlightenment Buddhism had ostracised mundane distractions like love and sex.
Hindu kings were fighting rearguard action to win back Buddhists to their fold and were turning the tide Bud-dhism^was in retreat from southern India.
The fonnula used was to let religion re sanction sensu ality so people could once more partake of inventive conjugal pleasures without feeling guilty.
"The Chandelas ... reconciled the physical and the spiritual, proving that mind and matter need not necessarily be at war " writes Pod dar, whose family first opened up the temples to tourism twenty years ago.
Another explanation for the erotic art is that temples were also centres of learning for young adults. It was here that they could learn about sex, its pleasures and role in an individuals life.
The scenes of copulation are the expression or the ancient Hindu philosophy of tantricism that flourished in the ninth century across northern India, Nepal and Tibet. The union of male and female is seen as the fusion of (male I consciousness and (female) energy.
Some of the more sublime sculptures at Khajuraho show the male and female forms fused into one, symbolic of the oneness of consciousness and energy needed for creation.
In Khajuraho today, hoteliers worried by dwindling numbers of foreign visitors are turning to domestic tourism, hoping to make the temples a honeymoon destination. India's tourism industry has just began to recover from the plague scare last year.
Already, amorous Indian couples hand in hand have become as numerous on tem pie sight seeing trips as Euro pean and Americafi tourists
"We think Khajuraho has the ideal combination of his tory and art for honeymoon tourism," says Narayan Singh, the manager of Chandela Ho tel in Khajuraho.