The Khajuraho Lessons of Love - Sculptures of Khajuraho

Khajuraho, the small town in Madhya Pradesh, is home to an amazing variety of sculptures. The most remarkable of them, however, is an array of erotic sculptures noted for both their artistic and sensuous qualities.

There are many interpretations regarding the presence of such sculptures here. There are many who believe that such sculptures are manifestations of sexual postures described in the classical Indian text Kama Sutra which is a dissertation on human love making by the sage Vatsyayana.

In India, the concept of Tantric sex, or connecting physical pleasure with spiritual pursuits is a prestigious one. In this context, sexual acts get a ritual symbolic element and they become a journey to spiritualism. In the sculptures of Khajuraho, one may percieve these two elements of the physical and the spiritual.

Some argue that according to the ancient texts on architecture, portraying the images of animal, bird and human couple had been considered auspicious. It can also be interpreted that at that time, there were no inhibitions on sex and the physical union of man and woman.

Whatever it may be, the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho are far away from being purely physical or material. The physical union between man and woman is portrayed as the human counterpart of the cosmic function of creation. The video shows the erotic sculptures on the walls of Duladeo temple.