252. Teli ka Mandir, Gualior. (From a Photograph.)
this place there are now to be found some thirty important temples, all of which, with the exception of the Chaonsat Jogini and the Ganthai, described when treating of Jaina architecture, are of the same or nearly the same age. Nor is it difficult, from their style and from the inscriptions gathered by General Cunningham, to see what that age was. The inscriptions range from A.D. 954 to A.D. 1001; and though it is not clear to what particular temple they apply, we shall not probably err much if we assign the whole twenty-eight temples he enumerates to the century beginning 950 and ending 1050, with a margin of a few years either way. What renders this group more than usually interesting is, that the Khajurâho temples are nearly equally divided between the three great Indian religions: one-third being Jaina, one-third Vaishnava, and the remainder Saiva; and all being contemporary, it conveys an impression of toleration we were hardly prepared for after the struggles of the preceding centuries, though it might have been expected three centuries earlier.
A curious result of this toleration or community of feeling is, that the architecture of all the three groups is so similar that, looking to it alone, no one could say to which of the three religions any particular temple belonged. It is only when their sculptures are examined that their original destination becomes apparent, and even then there are anomalies which it is difficult to explain. A portion, for instance, of the sculptures of the principal Saiva temple—the Kandarya Mahadeo—are of a grossly indecent character;[465] the only instance, so far as I know, of anything of the sort being found in a Saiva temple, that bad pre-eminence being reserved to temples belonging to the worshippers of Vishnu. It is possible that it may originally have belonged to the latter sect; but, taking all the circumstances into consideration, this is most unlikely, and the fact must be added to many others to prove how mixed together the various sects were even at that time, and how little antagonistic they then were to each other.
The general character of these temples may be gathered from the annexed representation ([Woodcut No. 253]) of the principal Saiva temple, the Kandarya Mahadeo. As will be seen from the plan ([Woodcut No. 254]), it is 109 ft. in length, by 60 ft. in breadth over all, and externally is 116 ft. above the ground, and 88 ft. above its own floor. Its basement, or perpendicular part, is, like all the great temples here, surrounded by three rows of sculptured figures. General Cunningham counted 872 statues on and in this temple, ranging from 2½ ft. to 3 ft. in height, or about half life-size, and they are mixed up with a profusion of vegetable forms and conventional details which defy description. The vimana, or tower, it will be observed, is built
253. Kandarya Mahadeo, Khajurâho. (From a Photograph.)