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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileKhajuraho India - Javari Temple - Sculpture 05
This high-relief stone sculpture depicts a series of slender female figures standing on a decorated plinth. The figures are rendered with exaggerated, curvilinear forms, displaying elongated torsos and pronounced hips characteristic of the Chandela style. Several of the women are shown in partial nudity, with hands raised to their hair or engaged in conversation, while others mirror each other's stances, creating a rhythmic, flowing composition across the architectural surface.
These sculptures are integral to the temple's program, representing the auspiciousness of life and worldly pleasure (kama) as a precursor to spiritual liberation (moksha) within the Hindu tradition. The placement of such figures on exterior temple walls aligns with architectural manuals like the Shilpa Shastras.
Shilpa Shastras
These texts provide the canonical guidelines for the proportions and placement of auxiliary temple iconography like apsaras.
Object
relief carving
sandstone
Medieval
Indian
sculpture
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
305 × 344 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview on April 19, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.