Khajuraho: Beyond Eroticism

When a young and adventurous British officer on a mission in the hot and dusty plains of Central India is told he can view some wildly erotic sculptures, how can he refuse? It was this dare from the palanquin-bearer of Captain T S Burt in February 1838 that brought the temples of Khajuraho to the world’s attention.

Burt was escorted to the site while he was on a surveying expedition of the Central Indian plateau, between the towns of Eran and Sagar in present-day Madhya Pradesh. When the surveying party reached the small village of Khajuraho, Burt was dumbfounded by what he saw – the ruins of 22 sandstone temples, all within a stone’s throw of each other, embellished by the most spectacular temple art.