India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) - Keith Bain [403]
GUIDES Guides charge Rs 600 for a group of one to five people for 4 hours. You can hire the services of a guide at Raja Café (opposite the Western Group of temples; see below). Alternatively, the MPSTDC offers a “Walkman Tour”—an audioguide tour purchased at the M. P. Tourism counter at the entrance to the Western Group; this costs Rs 50, but check that everything is in working order before you set out. Be warned that most guides in Khajuraho are just plain dreadful. They may be fine for pointing out details you might otherwise miss, but they regularly spout fundamentalist nonsense and provide the most unbelievable explanations for why erotica was carved on these temples (one classic explanation is that the scenes were created to tell people what “not to do”). An exception to the normal drivel is Samson George ( 98-9317-3280), a lighthearted guy who provides savvy historical information, with explanations that separate fact from legend. If you’re staying at one of the top-end hotels, ask them to arrange a guide.
FESTIVALS The Khajuraho Dance Festival is held between February 25 and March 2, when the temples are transformed into a magical backdrop for India’s top classical dancers, who perform traditional Odissi, Kuchipudi, and Bharatnatyam dance forms, as well as contemporary Indian dance styles. For up-to-date information, visit www.khajuraho-temples.com. Tip: Hotels get packed during this time, so you may need to book months ahead.
Services Unlimited
As you wend your way around town, all sorts of men and boys will try to “adopt” you by starting up polite conversations—a pattern you will quickly recognize—before getting down to the business of offering their services for a range of possible needs: tour guides, transport, bicycle hire, shopping assistance, advice, or a tour of the local village school. All are moneymaking enterprises of which you should be wary; best to make it very clear that you have no intention of parting with your money, and leave it to your new friend to decide whether or not to stick around.
A Jolly Good Ride!
If you have the legs for it, hire a cycle from the hotel you’re staying at or from outside the Western Group (Rs 30/hr). Despite the tourist influx, Khajuraho is still steeped in its traditional rural ways and as you cycle through the village, making your way to the Eastern and Southern temples, you’ll enjoy a much more authentic and warmer interaction with the locals (versus those who lurk outside the main temples); for directions, you just have to say your destination and you’ll be sent the right way. Kids are absolutely delightful and will run after you or just wave depending on how involved they are with their own game of (usually) cricket; wizened faces smile and nod as if they were expecting you all this time; and with enough goats and cows and chickens along the way, you are bound to feel like you’re in a rural idyll—especially during sunset, when everything turns strangely quiet and magical, and with the wind in your hair and the smell of earth and clean air, you feel, for the briefest moment, that this is home.
EXPLORING KHAJURAHO’S TEMPLES
Known for the profusion of sculptural embellishments on both exterior and interior walls, Khajuraho’s temples are also recognizable for the exaggerated vertical sweep in the majority of the temples, with a series of shikharas (spires) that grow successively higher. Serving as both metaphoric and literal “stairways to heaven,” these shikharas are believed to be a visual echo of the soaring Himalayan mountains, abode of Lord Shiva. Most of the sculpted temples are elevated on large plinths (often also shared by four smaller corner shrines), and follow the same five-part design. After admiring the raised entrance area, you will enter a colonnaded hall that leads