The spectacular Hindu temples of Khajuraho were built between 950 and 1050 CE by royal members of the Chandela Dynasty. As works of architecture, they represented a level of complexity and sophistication not seen in earlier temple architecture. Yet the temples are not best-known for their architecture, but for the sculptures that adorn them, particularly the ones representing explicit sexual acts by couples in decidedly acrobatic positions. Nobody really knows their significance in this context. Some relate them to Tantric ideas, which find expression in both Hinduism and esoteric Buddhism. The sexual act is the essential procreative act, and since much of Hinduism is based on fertility and the conjoining of masculine and feminine principles, it might make sense to have such acts on temples. The sculptures also tend to appear at the joins of different sections of the temple, thus suggesting that they might symbolize the ‘joining’ of the temple’s parts. Since the temples were constructed by rulers, and since virility and rule were often conflated in the literature of the time, maybe the Chandelan kings were also equating their sexual prowess with their prowess in battle (battle scenes can be found on some of the temples’ bases).