Art + Aesthetics + Aspects of Human being = Khajuraho

 - Dr. (Ms) Sharad Singh

            Some people are says that the erotic icons of Khajuraho are only the libidinous expressions of the Chandela kings and some are underline it’s as an art of their ideology. Between the debates we should never forget that we have rich cultural value in our past. In the ancient India, we were worship the phallus and vagina from Indus Valley civilization. There were they have in the broad meanings. Both are limbs are generated the life of every living being. In the other words, act of love making or affection of sex is a part of life of every living creature to produce to generation.

         Khajuraho is a little village in Madhya Pradesh, containing some of the most exquisite temples built in the Chandella’s architectural style. For centuries these temples remained lost, till in 1838 A.D., a British engineer discovered them. The early rulers of the Chandellas dynasty ruled near the Vindhya. A Chandella inscription of 954 A.D. states that Vakpati’s “Pleasure mound was that Vindhya, the picks of which are humming with sweet notes of his Excellencies sung by the Kirat women.”

             The founder of the Chandella dynasty was King Nannuk and Vakpti was the second ruler. The territory of the Chandellas came to he known as Jejakabhukti after the name of Jayashakti, the younger son of Vakpti. Though little is known about the Chandella dynasty that built the temples, it is conjectured that over Central and Northern India from some time in the ninth century to about the thirteenth century, when they went in to a decline. A total of 85 temples were erected, out of which 20 survive. Of these, the earliest, the Chausath Yogini temple dates to around 850 A.D. and the last, the Duladeo temple to 1100-25 A.D.

            As in other Indian medieval temples, at Khajuraho too, architecture and sculpture achieve a perfect fusion. The Gods, Goddesses, Apsaras (celestial beauties), Gandharvas (flying celestials), Shrduls (mythical animals), Shalbhanjika (tree spirits) and other celestial and earthly beings that decorate both the inside and outside of the temples. The largest temple of Khajuraho, the Kandaria is dedicated to Siva. Almost all types of Siva forms are found at Khajuraho. The worship of Siva in his an iconic form must have been the most common religious feature as Lingam. The Lingam origin and its worship has been a subject of controversy. Some associate the Lingam-cult with that of the phallus. Actually, the origin of the Sivlingam was traced from the Yupastambha praised in a hymn of the Atharvaveda. The Lingapurana has used the term lingam in the sense of visible symbol, while the absolute form of Siva which is beyond all visible forms is hence called the Alingam meaning that which has no symbol.

According to the ancient sages of India has the division
of human life and the classification of the human duties was to lay an equal stress on every stage of life and on the performance of every kind of duty whether of earning Artha mean wealth, Dharma mean religion, Kama mean pleasures of sex and Moksha mean dedicated to God by his soul. The Kama is an important duty which has to be performed by every man and woman. The Kama has a broadest sense, means the desire for all kinds of pleasurable sensations through the five senses of the body and also through the mind or the soul. In the other words the Kama is a form of producing of life or fertility. It is to say have not bigger that the ancient people there were have broad sense for the Kama. So, they were worship the phallic and vagina as producer things in their religious life.    

         The phallic worship was prevalent amongst all ancient civilizations. Phallic representations have been found in Abyssinia, Somalia and Egypt. Kenya and Tanganyika were also familiar with the phallic worship.

         At Khajuraho there are few remarkable Lingam icons. The big panel on the bank of Sivasagar lack which shows twenty men in all, eleven in one side of the lingam and nine on the other side. Lingam is placed on a high pedestal on Padma-pitha. The man nearest to Lingam has a pot of water called “Kalas”, in his hands from which he is pouring water over the Lingam. Other two men have “Kalas” in their hands too. The fourth man folded his hands in “Anjali” pose to pay homage to Lingam.

         In the Visvanatha temple there is a magnificent carving of Shiva- Lingam. In this feature a man is shown worshiping the Shiva-Lingam by reciting Mantras. On the right back of Lakshamana temple there is another carving of Siva-Lingam. In this feature has the scene of the phallic-worship by the people. In another carving in the same temple has seated facing the Siva-Lingam with two worshipers.

         Twelve couples of Gandharvas which has related with dance and music performance have worshiped by garland to Siva-Lingam at Kandariya temple. In the Matngasvara and Nilkantham temple have also remarkable carving of Siva-Lingam.  

       There are some other kinds of Lingam at Khajuraho, though they are few in numbers. At the subsidiary shrines of Visvanatha temple there is a four faces Shiva-Lingam, called Chaturmukha Shiva-Lingam. At the Brahma temple there same four faces Shiva-Lingam. Actually, the Mukha Lingam’s as carve as well as icon were feature of the Gupta and post-Gupta period. It is as tradition fluent till Chandella period in an artistic as well as religious.

      Lord Siva is the god of creation and destroys, so the Chandella artists were shown him to producer of living-being in the motif of Siva-Lingam.

         Not only Siva-Lingam there are many erotic icons which are based on the ideology of Third Duty mean Kama. Actually, now we have forgotten our ancient ideology and we have left span of views. So, we have taken it only as physically. At the Khajuraho there are not only erotic icons, these are 25% only.

          Of all the Khajuraho temples, it has the loftiest base with several elegantly chiseled moldings, which include two rows of processional friezes teeming with elephants and horses, warriors and hunters, acrobats and musicians, dancers and devotees and erotic couples. The largest number of sculptures appears on the three registers of its wall and represents an animated array of god and goddesses, couple and nymphs on projection. There are many aspects of beauty of nature, beauty of human being, environment, variation of creatures, human-nature, human activities, mythic values, social values, political values, economical values. Actually, Khajuraho has the meaning of eternal aesthetics which is so practical and so meaningful. Y. Borev, the writer of ‘Aesthetics’, is also said that, ‘The art is that established and firmly fixed form of aesthetic cognition of the world according to the laws of the beautiful which beside aesthetic content, has an artistic concept of the world and personality, and a set of images filled with a definite ideological and emotional meaning.