The temple complexes of Khajuraho have become world famous - and for all the wrong reasons. Just like the Kamasutra, one aspect of their multifaceted reality has dominated the public consciousness.

So if Khajuraho were used as a word association test, the inevitable response would be "erotic sculpture". Which is a pretty miserable reduction of the magnificence of Khajuraho, but perceptions are always more powerful than the truth.

Khajuraho is a village in Madhya Pradesh, central India, that gives its name to a cluster of eighty-four temples, at least twenty-five of which are major works of art, built between the tenth and twelfth centuries by the Chandella kings in an area of 21 square kilometers. They are listed as world heritage monuments and they are a veritable jungle of sculpture apart from being masterly examples of the Indian art of stone architecture. But the sheer aesthetic beauty of the temples has always been overlooked in the rush to view the hot stuff, which is an understandable human reaction. Since eroticism is the major prism through which the temples have always been viewed, perhaps a quick once-over of shifting attitudes towards them would be appropriate here. The temples were 'rediscovered' in the nineteenth century (1838 by a Captain Burt, to be precise) by British engineers and scholars - which only means that this was the first they knew about it. Many of the temples were still in worship and the shrines as a whole were never abandoned, contrary to the popular belief.

The British were certain that these temples were proof of ancient India's decadence, the depths of degradation they had sunk into. This alleged weakening of the moral fibre, morality being defined as the denial of the sexual impulse at all waking moments, was the reason India fell an easy prey to invasions.

This theory had many adherents and it is not totally out of fashion yet. Even that great Victorian puritan Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, found the temples deeply distressing and gave his blessing to a band of pious vandals who wanted to chip the walls of the temples clean from these 'indecent and embarrassing' affronts to their ignorant notions about Indian culture. It took the intervention of no less than Rabrindranth Tagore who wrote an appalled letter to Gandhi, explaining that this was a national treasure and could not be so cavalierly demolished because some people were uncomfortable that their ancestors were sexual beings.

Once the temples were begrudgingly accepted as national treasures they still had to be explained away. Embarrassment about sex is the dominant Indian reality today, no matter what, The walls of Khajuraho state what was once the contrary. So an army of whitewashers got busy. The favorite explanation was that of tantra. Whenever something is slightly unusual, or as is more likely, beyond the ken of the person, it is safe to label it as a tantrik practice. After that all questions and questings are stilled, for the tantriks are believed to be capable of believing anything and practicing anything in the name of religion. So esoteric rulers and cults who built these sites in a vast expression of their erotic faith was a very popular explanation and it still is.

The use of erotic art in the Hindu tradition became a specialty subject in itself. Theories began to abound. For some, these were a sort of colossal textbook in stone telling, the Worshippers who gathered round, what acts of sex were permissible within religious parameters and what was not. There is actually a lot of sense to this theory, as depictions of men having sex with horses were never meant to be taken as any sort of ritualistic sexual practice. As usual the tantra cults got the major blame or credit depending on which side you were on.

Other explanations eschewed the religious route and tried a secular approach.The Khajuraho temples were a paean to the joys of pleasure (kama), one of the purusharthas - actions worthy of being pursued as goals in life. Such interpretations found a lot of support from the Kamasutra, and the correct belief that ancient India had a very sane and joyful approach to sexuality. Thus the temples were sex education for the masses.

Yet another approach based on the hitherto neglected approach of comparative cross-cultural studies across the country came up with the intriguing possibility that these sculptures may be a form of repellant magic. (The erotic aspect is actually disappointingly limited for those who hope for an endless supply of porn.) According to the popular folk beliefs, evil spirits dislike temples coming up and adding to the net value of good karma. They would attack and try to destroy these temples. However they are very fastidious and rather easily shocked, so when they see such erotic carvings on the outside they are repelled by the impoliteness and grossness and flee from such uncouthness!