Khajuraho

10th century temple at Khajuraho

Nobody knows why artists of the Chandela dynasty carved erotic scenes on Hindu temples. But this went on for roughly a hundred years in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Some scholars think this Kama Sutra in stone is a kind of marriage manual for Brahmin boys. Though the numbers of people involved in some scenes suggests activities beyond marriage. Others think the sculptures are Tantric---cultists who believed that physical as well as spiritual gratification led to Nirvana. The Indians we met just seem to think these lovingly wrought sensual images are kind of cool. As our guide said, people "just come and see and do like that."

At night there's a sound and light show, done in Hindi and then English, that's pretty bad. You sit on plastic chairs in an open field and freeze while trying to decipher whether the flickerings and flashes around you are planned or just another feature of northern India's erratic electrical supply. It's not so romantic.