Khajuraho Tours

India's top tourist attraction, Taj Mahal is the ultimate requiem of love, from a great Mughal Emperor to his beloved. Made up of white marble, this mausoleum has immortalized Agra as the City of the Taj.The Khajuraho of today is more familiar to today's monuments to commercialization - hotels, restaurants and shops - signs of ordinary civilization.

The past with all its grandeur, in the form of the temples gaze benignly at a city that continues to thrive because of what its rulers gave it. Of course, the city comes alive every year during the Dance Festival in March, when the maestros of classical dance, Birju Maharaj and Kelucharan Mohapatra and their disciples perform against the dramatic temple backdrop. Beyond doubt, Khajuraho is not an Indian destination you can afford to miss.

Once guarded by swaying date palm trees, which gave the city of Khajuraho its name, the city is a study in art and sculpture. Indeed, the Chandela Temples form the centre of Khajuraho with its myriad graceful forms that continue to evoke shock, surprise, awe and admiration among a thousand other feelings.An outstanding example of Indo-Aryan architecture, the art on the temple walls is an elegant combination of intricacy and simplicity.

The city traces its origin to the 10th century when it was the bastion of the Chandela dynasty. The Khajuraho of today is more familiar to today's monuments to commercialization - hotels, restaurants and shops - signs of ordinary civilization.

Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh is a well visited tourist center. This village houses several temples from the 9th through the 13th centuries, built in the Indo Aryan Nagara style of architecture, embellished with a profusion of sculptural work. Around the temples are bands of fine work, depicting several aspects of life, over a 1000 years ago, portraying gods, goddesses, musicians, animals, etc. Erotic sculptures featuring Apsaras and mithunas (couples) also dominate the themes portrayed here.

The temples are a series of towers each higher than the other, culminating in a soaring shikhara. The inner sanctum sanctorum is just as elaborately carved as the exterior. It is amazing that these blocks have simply been fitted together since at the time of being built, there was no mortar.