Series
Khajuraho is hard to reach. A small village in Madhya Pradesh, famous for its temples adorned with erotic sculptures. I wanted to see it with Narayan, but we didn't have time. I wanted to see it with Keren and Noa, but again there was no time. After a six-hour train ride from Delhi, I arrived in Jhansi where I had to spend the night. The following morning a five-hour bus ride finally took me to Khajuraho. The village is small and not particularly interesting in itself. The number of tourists has been lower than usual this year, making the locals particularly aggressive in their attempts to get tourists to spend their money.
But Khajuraho is all about the temples. Spread out over the city in three main groups, the village has over twenty temples dating from AD950 to AD1050. The temples are covered with sculptures representing everyday scenes, but the most interesting aspect is of course the erotic ones. The first thing that struck me was that the laws of physics back in those days seemed to work differently: breasts were immune to gravity. The finesse of the sculpting is astounding; some figures clearly convey that they are wearing a very light semi-transparent sari, while others take on very provocative (if somewhat uncomfortable) poses. These delightful ladies are called surasundaris.
Some of the panels are very large and placed at the centre of the facade of the temple. Others are hidden in small alcoves, or in the midst of more mundane things — like an advancing army. It takes time to look through the dense collection of sculptures on the temples, but there are gems to be found within. We are not talking about soft porn here. The acrobatic positions of the Kamasutra are covered, obviously. But there are many which require 3 or 4 participants. There are the more incongruous sculptures: a sadhu taking a horse, under the interested gaze of a masturbating sadhu, while a women is covering her eyes with an air of contempt — this is the scene taking place at the trailing end of he advancing army. It's hard to understand the link between these sculptures and religion sometimes... All I know is that Shiva is frequently associated with sexuality and fertility (and represented by the phallic Shiva-lingas). One day, Shiva's mount Nandi-the-bull — after whom all cows are sacred in India — overheard Shiva and Parvati at night, and passed on the information to men in the form of the Kamasutra. The Kamasutra says that sexual enjoyment goes hand in hand with the moral, material and spiritual well-being of a person.
Some of the sculptures are more puzzling... The sardulas — mythic animal with the body of a horse and the head of a lion, reminiscent of the Iran's Homas found in Persepolis. I couldn't really decide if these figures where being pleasured by the ladies or if soldiers were fighting them. I think the second option is more likely, but I can't be sure... Decide for yourself.
One thing is for sure: after visiting the temples it felt very lonely at night in my hotel room!
What has happened in India in the past 1000 years? Looking at the temples of Khajuraho it is easy to see that some layers of society were having a good time. But today this same society is more puritan in many ways than Iran's. Surely, Islam and Victorian English society must take the blame for that one... This is rural India: men keep all stores, restaurants and hotels in town. As I write this I am trying to recall if I saw any (local) women in Khajuraho. And the truth is that I am not sure... In school, girls are segregated from boys and discouraged to mingle. After marriage they are kept inside the houses to raise the children. They might come out to go fetch water at the well, but that's about the only reason they might have to go out.
Also prevalent is the caste system. In the village there are different water wells for the people of the different castes. Marriages are always arranged within one's caste (for fear of down-casting the children otherwise). The rules are strict: not legally enforced anymore, but by a strict code of moral and social conduct. This is the most disturbing aspect of Hinduism for me: as much as it seems tolerant towards outsiders, it is very rigid and intolerant when it comes to social status. And by extension, it is intolerant of skin color — racism. As in many parts of Asia, the darker the skin, the lower the social rank. Peasants are very dark, aristocracy is wheatish. And in India, the marriage practice clearly does genetic selection in favor of light skin color.
In this context it is easy to see how Islam is making great strides in India. As a man from the lower castes, the minute you convert to Islam you suddenly are considered everyone else's equal... No amount of money could do that for your social status under Hinduism. As a women, you are much worse off under Islam than under Hinduism if you come from a rural area; but its not like anyone would ask the women what they think of the question in any case.
I came to understand the reality of these social structures by talking to some local youths: Kallu, Bahia and Krishna. All in their late teens, born and raised in Khajuraho, with little possibilities of ever leaving the town. Struggling with their desire for girls, which they have no contact with. All under the benevolent eyes of the surasundari of Khajuraho. Obviously their only chance of getting a girl lies in the ever-replaced flow of tourists.
I finally came to the realization that rural India is very much like the Middle Ages in Europe. Animals and people living together in the same quarters, social organization and hierarchy, lack of cleanliness and hygiene, prospects of change, ... Ox-driven carts, people taking a shit in the street, animals feeding in piles of garbage, people with no homes, beggars with handicaps and deformities. Mixed into this you find: modern (if run down) means of transportation, electricity, telephones, Internet and lots of plastic bags. Plastic bags are a special environmental problem since they are not biodegradable, and Indians have no discipline for discarding garbage: they just throw it wherever they happen to be. So there are thousands of discarded platic bags dotting the landscape.
A motorcycle excursion to the Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary, just 20km form Khajuraho turned out to be quite frustrating. On the one hand, the falls, which during monsoon season are very impressive, roaring with water, were reduced to a trickle of water through the rocks. On the other hand, these rocks were perfect for rock climbing but the park management doesn't allow it, worried about its responsibilities in case of accident. On top of it, the ever existing fights about costs: the locals trying to cheat on the quantity of fuel purchased, the cost of fuel, the cost of the motorcycle rental, etc. It's just very tiring, and I find that I have much less patience for it when I am tired. I don't mind having to haggle over cost, or even paying a little more than the locals; but if I am being taken for an idiot I loose all semblance politeness and let them have it. All it does in the end is make them try to screw the next tourist a little more. There's just no winning this fight.
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