Lakshmana Temple Khajuraho

      Lakshmana temple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu, was built from 930-950 AD during the reign of King Yasovarman of the Chandella kingdom.  It houses a sacred image of Vaikuntha-Vishnu brought from Tibet.  Though the temple is one of the oldest in the Khajuraho fields, it is also one of the most exquistely decorated, covered almost completely with images of over 600 gods in the Hindu Pantheon.  The main shrine of the temple, which faces east, is flanked by four freestanding subsidiary shrines at the corners of the temple platform.

The temple is famous for the explicitely sexual carvings on the southern side of the temple (images 12-13), though these make up only a small fraction of the total.

Facing the large Lakshmana temple there are two small shrines - Lakshmi and Varaha temples. The Varaha Temple is dedicated to Vishnu's boar incarnation or the Varaha Avtar. Inside this small shrine there is a huge, solid figure of the boar. Walking around the enclosure we see another small shrine Parvati temple. It has an image of Ganga riding over the back of a crocodile