India Guide
Madhya Pradesh
The Eastern Group
Price: Entire complex Rs250
Opening time: Daily sunrise to sunset
The two separate networks of temples that make up the Eastern Group are reached via the two forks of the road east of town.
The largest of the Khajuraho village temples, Vamana, stands alone in a field. Erected in a fully evolved Chandella style, Vamana has a simple uncluttered shikhara that rises in bands covered with arch-like motifs. Figures including seductive celestial nymphs form two bands around the jangha, the body of the temple, while a superb doorway leads to the inner sanctum, which is dedicated to Vamana, an incarnation of Vishnu.
The temple of Parsvanath, dominating the walled enclosure of the Jain Group, is probably older than the main temples of Khajuraho. Its origins are a mystery; although officially classified as a Jain monument, it may have been a Hindu temple that was donated to the Jains, who settled here at a later date. Certainly, the animated sculpture of Khajuraho's other Hindu temples is well represented on the two horizontal bands around the walls, and the upper one is crowded with Hindu gods in intimate entanglements. Among Khajuraho's finest work, they include Brahma and his consort; a beautiful Vishnu; a rare image of the god of love, Kama, shown with his quiver of flower arrows embracing his consort Rati; and two graceful female figures. Inside, beyond an ornate hall, a black monolithic stone is dedicated to the Jain lord Parsvanath, inaugurated as recently as 1860 to replace an image of another tirthankara, Adinath.
Immediately north of Parsvanath, Adinath's own temple, similar but smaller, has undergone drastic renovation. Three tiers of sculpture surround its original structure, of which only the sanctum, shikhara and vestibule survive; the incongruous mandapa is a much later addition. Inside the garbha griha stands the black image of the tirthankara Adinath himself. The huge 4.5-metre-high statue of the sixteenth tirthankara, Shantinath, in his newer temple, is the most important image in this working Jain complex. With its slender beehive shikharas, the temple attracts pilgrims from all over India, including naked sadhus.