Ritual

The terrifying aspects of these images are completely dispelled
in the tantric asana forms in both sculpture and painting. In the
reliefs of the temples of Konarak and Khajuraho, the sensuous
quality is developed to its logical culmination so that it has almost
completely shattered aesthetic barriers and forced the ultimate
realization that life is art. What is justified and fundamental in life
must also be justified and fundamental in art. It is no longer a
question of that 'provocative indulgence' of the female figure from
which Roger Fry recoils with a puritanical shudder. Here we are
confronted with an ecstasy of joy in all its plastic possibilities. These
united male and female figures are drawn together in creative force
towards the awakening of the inner spirit, new dynamic asanaforms.
Filled with ecstatic conviction, they are no longer torn
between the contradiction of life and social existence.
In considering the mithuna sculptures, particularly on the
Lakshmana Temple at Khajuraho, it is a great mistake to confuse
the meaning of the figures carved in the horizontal band running
round the base of the temple with those depicted on the upper
portion. For instance, the mithuna figures carved at the base of the
temple depict the whole gamut of mundane life including various
sexual acts; but as one steps upward one is confronted with the
interlocking figures representing the antinomic principles; they
are symbols of transcendent union, which do not in any way
convey the gross sexual intercourse depicted in the lower portion
of the temple, which illustrates an earth-bound level of existence.
Kandariya Mahadeva Temple
(detail), Khajuraho. The carvings
on the exterior of this temple to
Siva are crowded with hundreds of
figures; the interior, on the other
hand, is plain and dark - the
darkness of the womb
(Garbhagriha). AD 950-1050.