Day 11 - Khajuraho

10.10.2022

Day 11

It’s 4.15 am and we are on the road already - Destination Khajuraho! 

Varanasi to Khajuraho is about 400 kms and expected driving time is approx 8 hours. Since we only have an overnight stay in Khajuraho and the entry to monuments close at 6.00 pm, we had to start early as we wanted to spend at least few hours at the site.

The drive from Varanasi was uneventful, but the herds of cattle on the roads (and they don’t care even if you get close to them) makes driving difficult. Bear with it and continue….

We drove through Panna Tiger reserve forest (no sighting of tiger) and reached Khajuraho at 1.30 pm. After check in at Bundela resort, had lunch and was ready to visit the monuments by 3.00 pm.

Khajuraho is a small town with a population of about 20,000 residents. The famous Khajuraho monuments are a group of Hindu and Jain temples and is a UNESCO Heritage site.

The temples were built between 885 AD and 1200 AD by the Chandela dynasty. Originally the site had 85 temples, of these only about 25 temples have survived. The temple is decorated with sculptures with intricate details, symbolism and expressiveness of ancient Indian art.

Unfortunately the temple complex was forgotten and overgrown by jungle for about 400 years until rediscovered in 1830’s. When discovered, the temple was covered with algae of two inches!! The restoration work was tedious and took many years and during this process also few sculptures were destroyed.

Khajuraho evokes so many different responses! The erotic sculptures of Khajuraho are the cynosure of all eyes and yet, you get varied reactions from people. While some are cynical, others cringe, few are embarrased, others are disappointed. We engaged a guide who was very competent and explained in detail about the artistry.

It started raining at around 5.30 pm, which meant the daily light and sound show on the grounds was cancelled. Nevertheless we are happy to have found time to visit this world heritage site in India and proud of that!

We returned to hotel and rested for the travel to Lucknow the next day.

At end of day eleven - 4406 kms on our tracker.

#fulltankers