Khajuraho is a place, situated in Madhya Pradesh in India that is admired by most of the Indians as well as the foreigners. It is popular for its temples which were made say about more than ten centuries ago. These temples are superb and show how Indian culture and science were so much rich even at that time. This is the perfect evidence of the advanced India. Due to its ancient value it has got the status of ‘World Heritage’. I had the strong desire to visit this place a long since. Last month the desire had been fulfilled as I got the chance to visit it.
Khajuraho is quite far off from Delhi. There was no direct train for Khajuraho from Delhi till some months ago. Now the Govt. has started a direct train for Khajuraho from Nizamuddin railway station, Delhi. Previously people used to get down at Mahoba or Harpalpur station when they took the train from Delhi. From either of these two stations, people hired a taxi or took the bus to go to Khajuraho. Presently, there is an air-port also which provides people another mode of transport.
I and Mira took the train, U P Sampark Kranti, which departed at right time. In the morning, at about 8 o, clock, the train arrived at Khajuraho. We got down from it. The station was small but rather neat and clean. Khajuraho is a small place so that people of the area know each other well. They were polite in behavior as I felt. We visited most of the temples by auto-rickshaw. The temples are divided in three or four groups. Out of them western group had the maximum number of temples and were at the same campus while temples of other groups were scattered. The houses in the town were mostly single story but quite tidy; which give the impression that the residents were fastidious. Most of the sculptures were ruined. The gardens around temples were also well maintained so they were also enhancing the beauty of these monuments. Some of the sculptures were erotic as the place is more popular for this world wide.
In the evening, we left Khajuraho and went to Jhansi by train. We arrived there at mid-night and went to the hotel which was already booked for us. Next day in the morning, my friend, Dr. Srivastav along with his friend came to our hotel to take us to Orcha. Orcha is a popular place for its temples. There is a popular Ram temple where devotees pray Lord Rama in the form of King; this is the only temple in India where God Rama is worshiped as a king. The temple was attractive and there is an interesting story behind it. Seeing it we came back and told them to drop us at Jhansi fort.
The fort was surrounded by a thick stone wall and the area of it was about fifteen acres as was told. We saw every spot of the fort. It rained while we were visiting it so the weather became very pleasant and cool. We enjoyed a lot there and admired too. We also visited the museum that was equipped with audio-video help. We came back to the hotel and after half an hour my friend came to take us to his house for lunch. His wife welcomed us warmly and served a delicious food. We did a lot of gossips and saw his library too; it was rich with some rare collections. We went back to the hotel to take some rest.
In the evening, Dr. Srivastav took us to Datiya. It has a popular ‘Devi’ Mandir’. We visited it and took the ‘Darsan’ of the Goddess. The temple is called a ‘Sidh Peeth’ too. We came back to Jhansi. My friend and his wife again insisted us to take dinner at their home. They invited us so affectionately that we couldn’t refuse their call. Having had the dinner we returned to hotel, took our luggage and went to the station to take the train for Delhi.