Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The temple is located among the Western group of temples on a 5.4 m high platform. It has a rectangular plan measuring 31.4 m x 18.3 m. Fourteen other historic Chausath Yogini temples have been discovered throughout India, the Khajuraho temple is the only one with a rectangular plan, all others have a circular plan. The temple is made of large, coarse granite blocks, with an open courtyard at the centre. The courtyard was originally surrounded by 65 shrine cells, 10 on the front (north) wall, 11 on the back wall, and 22 on each side. Only 35 of these 65 cells now survive. Each cell has a small doorway and a curvilinear tower. With the exception of a large cell, each cell is approximately 1 m high and 1 m deep. The large cell is located at the centre of the back wall, and faces the entrance at the north. It was probably a shrine of Durga. The other 64 ("Chausath") cells presumably housed the statues of yoginis. Sculpture The temple ruins have no sculpture. Three large statues of goddesses, found among the ruins, are now located at the Khajuraho museum. The goddess have been identified as Brahmani, Maheshvari and Hingalaja or Mahishamardini. These statues are among the oldest sculptures of Khajuraho.

The Temple is built on a large raised podium which itself is set in an open courtyard with small temples surrounding it. It is these shrines that are devoted to the Yoginis. The shrines are tiny plain cells, each entered by a small doorway and roofed by a curvilinear shikhara of an elementary form. The shrine in the back wall, facing the entrance, is the largest and perhaps constituted the main shrine. A few simple moldings 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 Khajuraho style, such as a lofty platform and a jangha (wall) divided into two registers.