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Category: Travel and Places
Kahju Rajo is one of the top five sites most people pick who are on a two week tear through India. It has a reputation of being the ’porn temples’. Gandhi even floated the idea of tearing down some of the steamiest parts until the great poet Tragore wrote an open letter telling him that they were there before him and god willing would still stand after him.
In the present pop interest in Tantra, which truly is about sex and not the higher forms of Raja Yoga, you can see photos of the most passionate panels thrown up as evidence of the wildness of Kahju Rajo and the culture that flourished there. These are used to validate wild sexuality but don’t elucidate the supreme states of consciousness needed to try doing it crocodile style. They don’t depict all of the amazing storytelling that is in the panels, the serene groups of people harvesting food, making chapattis, or pulling thorns from their feet. From the coffee table art books you find in the west you would think that Kahju Rajo was a granite and sandstone playboy monument. When you really see the amazing architecture, the detail, the craft-work, the intricate acts of common living that far outnumber the truly entrancing lovemaking sculptures you get the feeling that the eurocentric historians improper emphasis must be to turn one’s attention away from the fact that at the time Europe couldn’t even sustain what would be called a civilization here a 21Km square city that was at the heart of a unified state that spanned most of North India existed, flourished and produced some of the finest art and architecture that rivals the renowned renaissance of europe. Next to some of these works the great sculpture of David begs the question, ’yeah and so what are you saying?’
The evocative human forms are studies in anatomy, the sheer size and span of the construction is overwhelming much less that they are adorned with such craftsmanship. Also that there is a harmony here, man and women equal, even human and beast, all gods represented too. It’s no wonder that the Moghul bloodthirsty kings and the empire minded british had to decimate them and defile them. They stood in such contrast to what their various invasions were about.
As a traveler Madhya Pradesh is a bit remote though now you can fly directly into Kahju Raho and as we walked around the temple complex for eight hours we heard at least four planes coming overhead. It’s not a big city and it’s more than Varanasi which is exponentially bigger in size and attraction. Such is the reality of modern travel in India. The road ride in exposes that MP is a state with alot of space, in much of India you rarely go more then 20 clicks without going through some version of a town but we came in and out from separate directions and both ways, especially heading north east back towards Varanasi, we saw huge open landscapes, sightlines drifting off into the distance with almost no human print in the vision.
It was really my first time in seeing both Kahju Rajo and the Taj Mahal. They are ’must sees’ in many peoples eyes. It’s just that the ’guides’, traders and general climate of this high profile sites have always made me queasy. Varanasi is also one of these cities but for some reason I’ve been able sink below this profile and see the depth and daily life of this ancient city. In Agra and Kahju Rajo there isn’t as much current culture and every business family in India sends one son with the goods of the village to open a shop in these towns. So you can see south indian crafts, kashmiri rugs, rajistani cloth, musical instruments and silks from Varanasi all in the relatively small markets in both these towns. All that said both of these sites had extreme wow factor for me, they live up to their billing and are so amazing that I’m sure I will brave the shark pits of towns they are near to see them again.
6:46 AM
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