India Guide
Madhya Pradesh
The Southern Group
Price: Entire complex Rs250
Opening time: Daily sunrise to sunset
Khajuraho's Southern Group consists of three widely separated temples. The nearest to town, Duladeo, is down a dirt track south of the Jain Group, 1.5km from the main square. Built early in the twelfth century, Duladeo bears witness to the decline of temple architecture in the late Chandellan period, noticeable above all in its sculpture, which lacks Khajuraho's hallmark fluidity. Nonetheless, its main hall does contain some exquisite carving, and the angular rippled exterior of the main temple is unique to Khajuraho.
Across the Khodar stream and south along Airport Road, a small road leads left to the disproportionately tall, tapering Chaturbhuj – the shikhara is visible for miles above the trees. A forerunner to Duladeo, built around 1100 AD and bearing some resemblance to the Javari temple of the Eastern Group, Chaturbhuj is plainer than Duladeo and devoid of erotica. A remarkable 2.7-metre-high image of Vishnu graces its inner sanctum.
To reach the third temple, Bija Math, return to the cluster of houses before Chaturbhuj and take a right along the dirt track through the hamlet. The structure lay below a suspiciously large mound of mud (tela) until 1998, when the ASI undertook an excavation project and discovered the delicately carved platform. Unfortunately, the temple itself has disintegrated into the debris of ornate sculpture lying strewn around the site. You can go and watch the archeologists at work, patiently brushing the mud away to reveal parading elephants, intertwined lovers and rearing horses.