Duladeo Temple, Khajuraho – The Temple

Duladeo Temple, Khajuraho – The Temple

This Temple is facing towards east and measures 21 metres in length & 12 metres in width. This temple follow nagara style of architecture. This temple is a nirandhara temple, no ambulatory around its sanctum. The temple consists of Sanctum, Antrala, Maha Mandapa with lateral transepts and Mukha Mandapa. The sanctum is saptaratha in plan. The Maha Mandapa is spacious and octagonal in shape. Its ceiling has elegantly carved celestial dancers (apsaras).

There are twenty such brackets carved with the apsaras, with two or three apsaras next to each other in each bracket and arranged in the ceiling in a corbelled circle. A figure of Lord Shiva is carved on the lintel at the entrance of the sanctum. The Sanctum houses a Sahasrara Linga. This Linga has 999 Lingas carved all around its body. It is said that going around this Linga for a single time would be equivalent in taking a circumambulation of 1,000 times around it.

This Linga is not the original Linga once housed the sanctum but a later replacement. The shikhara is created in three rows of minor shikharas. The exterior portion above the base has three bands featuring sculptures of various deities, dwarfs, Ashta Dikpalakas, erotic poses, surasundaris (female figures) such as apsaras, and mythical creatures.

The figurines carved in the temple have soft expressive features unlike other temples. The top rows in the facade have sculptures of supernatural beings (vidyadhara) in a vibrant mode. There are sculptures of river goddesses under cover of umbrellas and decorations of clustered petals at entrance of Mukha Mandapam.