A a I
TRAVEL
Allan Radcliffe attends a Hindu wedding and explores Khajuraho — India’s gift of love to the world
.in sitting enjoying the shade of
the imposing Lakshmana
temple on a hot and dry day in Khajuraho when a party of Japanese tourists interrupts my peace. The small group stands bunched around one corner of the intricately adorned building. giggling into their dust masks. ()nce they‘ve moved on. I wander over to investigate the source of their amusement and find myself faced with an exquisithy-crafted sculpture of a man having sex in the missionary position with a delighted-looking horse.
The initial impact of the detailed erotic carvings that cover the Khajuraho temples — from sensuous maidens with huger exaggerated breasts and hips in various poses. through entangled group orgies to an elephant laughing with a woman entwined around his erect penis — has much to do with their geographical context. Despite sharing a birthplace with that definitive guide to human sexual behaviour. Kama Sutru. modern Indians inhabit a 20th century version of the Victorian Age. and tend to be either censorious or coy and prurient about ‘you know what’. Rural India is the last place
96 THE LIST l2~~26 Apr 2007
you‘d expect to see such graphic
scenes displayed so publicly. Twenty-two of these tall. honey—
coloured. pointed domes stand
scattered around the village of
Khajuraho in Madhya I’radesh (India‘s ‘Middle State'). survivors of a millennium of rough weather conditions. The l()()ft tall Lakshmana is the largest of the Western Group. set in a tranquil landscaped park of neat. mown lawns and rose-beds. I'm more than happy to part with the entrance fee of 300 Rupees (£3) as the temple tour is a welcome haven from the bustling tourist strip. the endless sales pitches from merchants and tour guides.
Paying a small supplement for the
RURAL INDIA IS THE LAST PLACE YOU'D EXPECT TO SEE SUCH GRAPHIC SCENES DISPLAYED
SO PUBLICLY
ndia
the erotic temples of
audio tour I wander between the temples and learn some of the theories behind the sculptures. Sexual an is never found inside the temple or near images of the deity. (iods such as Vishnu and Shiva reside at the upper reaches of the building and are always modestly clad. While the carvings do depict physical changes to the human
body and every configuration of
sexual behaviour. only ten per cent of them are erotic. ()ther scenes are of mundane everyday life: tradesmen going about their business. women applying kohl to their eyes and putting on jewellery or playing with their children. Inquisitive westerners could certainly be forgiven. however. for overlooking these sober scenes in favour of the riskier images.
As it happens I’m (forgive the pun) premature in visiting the temples at the beginning of my stay. My reason for travelling to Madhya Pradcsh is to attend the wedding of friends. It‘s customary for newly weds in this part of the world to tour the temples (which have been called India‘s gift of love to the world) with their close friends and family in the daysjbllmi'ing the marriage ceremony. My friends
Hindu weddings in Khajuraho culminate in an educational trip to the eroticalIy-charged temples
semi-jokineg refer to the carvings as a kind of stone-hewn sex manual for inexperienced lovers.
Marriage in India is a big deal. traditionally the culmination of parents‘ aspirations for their children. and still symbolising the transition from dependency to adult responsibility. The mixed-culture wedding I’m attending — the groom is Scottish. the bride is a native of Khajuraho — is somewhat different from the norm. Indeed. so rare is it for an Indian woman to marry a westerner at a Hindu ceremony. that villagers and the local media accord the couple and their guests a kind of celebrity status. In the space of a week the groom is interviewed by at least three newspapers and appears on television.
Rather than hiding from the glare of local curiosity. my friends have opted to embrace the full ritual. While modern Ilindu weddings are not as convoluted as they once were. they can last several days and comprise numerous ‘pnja’ (ceremonies). often involving long passages of Sanskri understood only by the ‘pujari‘ (priest). Friends and relatives have travelled from all over the state to Khajuraho to witness these nuptials and now occupy every floor and comer of the family house. cooking and eating. chatting in small groups or sleeping.