Khajuraho () is a city, near

Chhatarpur Chhatarpur is a city and a municipality in Chhatarpur district in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Chhatarpur District. History Chhatarpur was founded in 1785 and is named after leader Chhatrasal ...

in Chhatarpur district of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. One of the most popular

tourist destinations in India Tourism in India is 4.6% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Unlike other sectors, tourism is not a priority sector for the Government of India. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated or 5.8% of Ind ...

, Khajuraho has the country's largest group of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

and Jain

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

s, famous for their

erotic sculpture Erotic art is a broad field of the visual arts that includes any artistic work intended to evoke arousal. It usually depicts human nudity or sexual activity, and has included works in various visual mediums, including drawings, engravings, films ...

s. The

Khajuraho Group of Monuments The Khajuraho Group of Monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh, India. They are about 46 km (28.6mi) from Chhatarpur, Chhatarpur city, the district headquarter, 283 km (177mi) from Gwalior, southea ...

has been listed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 1986 and is considered one of the "seven wonders" of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The town's name, anciently "Kharjuravahaka", is derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word ''kharjur'' meaning "

date palm ''Phoenix dactylifera'', commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering-plant species in the palm family Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet #Fruits, fruit called dates. The species is widely cultivated across North Africa, northern A ...

History

The region was historically part of many kingdoms and empires. The earliest known power to have had Khajuraho in its territory were the

Vatsa Vatsa or Vamsa (Pali and Ardhamagadhi: , literally "calf") was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas (great kingdoms) of Uttarapatha of ancient India mentioned in the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Location The territory of Vatsa was located to the south o ...

. Their successors in the region included the Mauryans,

Sungas The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was a ruling entity centred around Magadha and controlled most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 187 to 75 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of Magadha from the ...

Kushans The Kushan Empire (– CE) was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Kus ...

Nagas of Padmavati The Naga (IAST: Nāga) dynasty ruled parts of north-central India during the 3rd and the 4th centuries, after the decline of the Kushan Empire and before the rise of the Gupta Empire. Its capital was located at Padmavati, which is identified wit ...

, the

Vakataka dynasty The Vakataka dynasty () was an ancient Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-3rd century CE. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in t ...

, the

Guptas The Gupta Empire was an Indian empire during the classical period of the Indian subcontinent which existed from the mid 3rd century to mid 6th century CE. At its zenith, the dynasty ruled over an empire that spanned much of the northern Indian ...

, the

Pushyabhuti dynasty The Pushyabhuti dynasty (IAST: Puṣyabhūti), also known as the Vardhana dynasty, was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Thanesar in northern India during the 6th and 7th centuries. The dynasty reached its zenith under its last ruler Harshav ...

, and the Gurjara-Praithara dynasty. It was specifically during the Gupta period that architecture and art began to flourish in this region, although their successors continued the artistic tradition. The

Chandela The Chandelas of Jejakabhukti was an Indian dynasty in Central India. The Chandelas ruled much of the Bundelkhand region (then called ''Jejakabhukti'') between the 9th and the 13th centuries. They belonged to the Chandel clan of the Rajputs. T ...

s ruled the area from the ninth century, who were subject to the Gurjara-Praitharas. During the reign of Dhanga (c. 950–1002) the Chandelas became independent and many important temples were built during this time. The Chandelas were dealt with fatal blows first from the

Chahamanas of Shakambhari The Chahamanas of Shakambhari (IAST: Cāhamāna), colloquially known as the Chauhans of Sambhar or Chauhans of Ajmer, were an Indian dynasty that ruled parts of present-day Rajasthan and neighbouring areas between the sixth and twelfth centuri ...

in 1182 then from

Qutb al-Din Aibak Qutb ud-Din Aibak (; 1150 – 4 November 1210) was a Turkic general of the Ghurid emperor Muhammad Ghori. He was in charge of the Ghurid territories in northern India, and after Muhammad Ghori's assassination in 1206, he established his ow ...

in 1202. Khajuraho declined to a small village as the Chandelas transferred their activities to the forts of Mahoba, Kalinjar, and Ajayagarh.

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

visited Khajuraho and described the presence of temples and a few ascetics. Some temples were damaged by Sikander Lodi in 1495. By the 16th century Khajuraho became an insignificant place and was only "rediscovered" by C. J. Franklin (a military surveyor) in 1819. However, the actual distinction of bringing Khajuraho back to the world's attention is given to T. S. Burt (a British army captain) who visited it in 1838. The next significant visitor was

Alexander Cunningham Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Sappers who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly crea ...

between 1852 and 1855.

Climate

Demographics

, the Indian

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

stated that Khajuraho had a population of 24,481. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Khajuraho has an average literacy rate of 53%, lower than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 62%, and female literacy is 43%. In Khajuraho, 19% of the population is under six years of age.

Transport

Air

Khajuraho Airport Khajuraho Airport is a domestic airport that serves the cities of Khajuraho and Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, India. The airport is 3 km south of Khajuraho, 4 km from Khajuraho railway station, 40 km from Chhatarpur and 50&nb ...

has flights to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

and Rewa. The airport is 3 km south of Khajuraho Town, and was opened in 1978 to facilitate tourism to the nearby

world heritage site temple complex. Concerns have been raised by experts regarding the feasibility of this airport and its impact on the world heritage site and the environment.

Rail

Khajuraho railway station Khajuraho railway station is located in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh and serves as an entry point for the Khajuraho Group of Monuments, medieval Hindu architecture, Hindu monuments famous for their erotic sculptures. Between 950 CE and ...

connects the town by a daily train to Delhi via

Tikamgarh Tikamgarh (also spelled as Tikamgadh)is a town and a tehsil in Tikamgarh district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The city serves as a district headquarters. The earlier name of Tikamgarh was Tehri (i.e., a triangle) consisting of thr ...

, Jhansi, Gwalior, Agra, and Mathura. It provides a daily train connecting to Agra, Jaipur, Bhopal and Udaipur. A local daily train also connects to Kanpur, whilst Varanasi is connected three times a week. At present, Khajuraho is connected by rail with New Delhi by two trains, namely the Geeta Jayanti Express originating from Kurukshetra and the Uttar Pradesh Sampark Kranti Express originating from Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station.

References

External links

About Khajuraho History
{{Authority control Hindu holy cities Cities in Bundelkhand