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Places to Visit at Khajuraho
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Kandariya-Mahadeva temple
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This Shaiva temple enshrining a linga is the largest and the loftiest monument of
Khajuraho, measuring about 30.5 m each in length and height and 20 m in width ,
excluding the platform. Strikingly similar to the Vishvanatha, it is much more magnificent,
and its mature plan and design, its grand dimensions and symmetrical proportions,
its superb sculptural embellishment and architectural elaboration-all mark it out
as the most evolved and finished achievement of the central Indian building-style
and one of the sublimest creations of Indian architecture.
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Lakshmana temple
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This temple dedicated to Vaishnava worship is sandhara temple of the panchayatana
(five-shrined) variety and is the earliest temple of Khajuraho with all the principal
elements of the developed temple type, viz. entrance-porch, mandapa, maha-mandapa
with transepts, vestibule and sanctum with an ambulatory and three transepts.
This is the only temple which preserves intact all the subsidiary shrines and the
jagati (platform) with its mouldings and friezes, the latter showing a moving pageant
of hunting and battle-scenes, processions of elephants , horses and soldiers and
miscellaneous representations, including domestic and erotic scenes. It still displays
the largest number of fine apsaras brackets , which form a notable features of the
interior decoration of the Khajuraho temples.
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Chausath-yogini temple
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The Chausath-yogini temple , made of a coarse granite is the earliest building at
Khajuraho and is situated on a low granite outcrop to the south-west of the shiva-sagar
tank. The temple has an exceptional plan and design. Standing on a lofty (5.4 metres
high) platform, it is an open-air quadrangular (31.4 m by 18.3 m) structure of sixty
-seven peripheral shrines, of which only thirty-five have now survived.
The shrines are tiny cells, each entered by a small doorway, and are severely plain
and roofed by a curvilinear sikhara of an elementary form. The shrine in the back
wall, facing the entrance, is the largest and constitutes the main sanctum. A few
simple mouldings on the façade are all the decoration that the temple displays,
but in spite of its uncouth appearance and rugged bareness, it possesses an elemental
strength and reveals some basic traits of the Khajuraho style, such as a lofty platform
and a jangha (wall ) divided into two registers.
Of all the yogini temples in India, this is the most primitive in contruction and
unique in being quadrangular and not circular on plan. Cunningham surmised the existence
of a shrine at the center of the courtyard, but excavation revealed no such evidence.
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Parvati temple
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This temple, situated immediately to the south-west of the Visvanatha, is a heavily-restored
small shrine, originally comprising a sanctum and porch. The porch is completely
lost and of the sanctum, only the plinth has survived. .
The doorway belongs to a Vaishnava shrine as is indicated by a Vishnu figure on
the middle of the lintel, while the image in the sanctum represents Gauri with the
godha (iguana) as her vehicle. Near it , facing the main road , is a hundred-year
old temple built by a Maharaja of Chhatarpur.
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How To Get To Khajuraho
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By Air:
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Khajuraho Air service is driect link with Delhi, Agra, Varanasi and Kathmandu.
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By Rail:
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The nearest railheads are Mahoba and Harpalpur. Jhansi is a convenient railhead
for those travelling from Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai and Varanasi the railhead is
Satna, on the Mumbai-Allahabad section of the Central Railway is ideal. Delhi, Mumbai,
Calcutta, Chennai, Agra by train to the railheads.
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By Road:
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Khajuraho is connected by regular and direct bus services with Chhatarpur, Mahoba,
Harpalpur, Satna, panna, Jhansi, Gwalior, Agra, Sagar, Jabalpur, Indore, Bhopal,
Varanasi and Allahabad.
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