“Ma’am, we have all the positions available – onesome, twosome, threesome, group – which one do you want?”

This is not something that you expect to hear at a small souvenir shop – from a traditional-looking man – in a historic Indian town. And certainly didn’t expect him to show the shop’s collection of keychains, sculptures, bottle openers, fridge magnets, and even playing cards – categorised under different “positions”.

While I was mentally prepared for the “erotic” artworks in the temple complex built between the 10th and 11th centuries CE, their unique replicas in different avatars were totally out of the syllabus.

These are not random erotic souvenirs, picked out of Wattpad. Neither is the entire market spun around eroticism – it offers plenty of textiles, gemstones, and artefacts, among other keepsakes.

“It’s a space where you can buy an authentic Chanderi saree in one shop, a piece of ancient-style metal craft in the next, and a unique temple-inspired souvenir right after all while sipping chai with vendors who double as local history storytellers,” Ajay Verma, Chief Experience Officer, EaseMyTrip Foundation, says.

A new normal

An “interesting” keychain I got from one of the local thelas in Khajuraho

In a society where intimacy is still a hushed topic, an unapologetic display of intimacy in the Madhya Pradesh town is bound to surprise, and I was no exception.

Ananya Srivastava, who frequented the Unesco World Heritage site just a 30-minute drive from her home in Chhattarpur as a child, had the same experience.

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“I still remember seeing a white colour saree with positions depicted in black and red,” Srivastava recalls, referring to a vivid memory that still feels fresh.

Srivastava says parents should not shy away from taking their children to Khajuraho. According to her, a place like Khajuraho can become an opportunity for parents to introduce their children to age-appropriate sex education instead of letting them pick up misinformation from the internet or pornography out of curiosity.

Srivastava’s point about intimacy being treated as a taboo felt rather real when I met a “travel-loving” married couple from Bhopal who had come to Khajuraho for the weekend to celebrate their anniversary.

In a secretive tone, the wife told us that the trip had a secondary motive too – to reignite the spark in their 10-year-old marriage.

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“My husband has brought so many souvenirs. Of course, we’ll show them off to our friends, but we’ll have to hide them properly. What if our elders see this? What would they think?” she said, acknowledging that outside Khajuraho, the acceptability towards this open expression of intimacy can still be a taboo.

Nitin Jain, the owner of Kuber Showroom, a 51-year-old legacy shop in the region, says some people also buy these pieces in bulk for their rooms, farmhouses, and other spaces.

“In fact, there is an erotic-themed hotel in Brazil that had placed a big order with us. They wanted a souvenir in each room.”

A paan shop selling Kamasutra and Khajurao temples-inspired playing cards

However, not everyone is as fazed by the vivid imagery.

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“I personally did not find this uncomfortable or surprising; the sculptures are part of Khajuraho’s history, and it is natural that some memorabilia draws on them,” Hemant Joshi, CEO, Atithi Foundation, a tourism policy think tank working closely on tourism expansion in Khajuraho, says.

“The erotic imagery represents only a small part of the temple art and should not become the defining identity of either the market or the destination,” Joshi adds.

And Joshi is not alone.

“By the time they come to the shop, they have already seen the temple complex and the shock has fizzled out,” Lucky, who owns a gift shop, says.

At the temple complex, he says, guides explain the true meaning, lore, and historical significance behind the structures in detail, which changes tourists’ perspectives towards the imagery.

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Just like grocery shopping

Spotting an erotic item in these bazaars might be easy, but what adds even more to the wonder is the way they are sold.

For us, these souvenirs might be a big deal, but for the sellers, it’s almost mechanical. If you don’t particularly notice a Khajuraho-inspired artefact among the other items, you might think they are selling any regular item.

As if you aren’t finalising a fridge magnet with a lovemaking couple, but grocery essentials.

Manish Sharma, Co-Founder, Key Communications, agrees.

“What stands out is the effortless way sellers present even the most explicit souvenirs, with humour, cultural context, and genuine warmth, enabling visitors to engage, explore and understand the essence of the temples without hesitation or awkwardness,” he says.

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This isn’t just good manners, though, but a well-adopted principle.

Khajuraho offers a rich collection of gorgeous bamboo sarees

“We don’t put the erotic souvenirs on display out in the front,” says Nitin, adding that the shops ensure that it doesn’t become awkward for families, pilgrims, and women tourists.

In fact, some sellers are aware of the business’s fragility and put in extra effort to keep awkwardness at bay.

“Of course, there’s always a bit of hesitation,” admits 54-year-old Hari Narayan Sharma of Shiv Handicraft Emporium, who has been in the business for 32 years.

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In the case of men, he does not have to think so much, but for women customers he has a golden rule: always seek permission before offering to show them the erotic sculptures.

Some elderly visitors, who have a hard time adjusting to this unfamiliar view, bombard him with thousands of questions.

From erotic to the everyday

Anurag Shukla, a tour guide since 1996, says he has noticed people’s perception of Khajuraho change through the years.

Shukla says until the late 1990s, the temples were seen much more as erotic architecture, and guides too were trained to cater to the curiosity of European tourists. It was later that the “tantric” explanation – a more spiritual interpretation – surfaced.

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A maths graduate, Shukla pursued engineering, but his love for historical architecture and fate pulled him back to Khajuraho. He is also a celebrated guide, scholar, and author who has spent years studying and researching the town’s fascinating sculptures and their history.

Khajuraho is a very warm, welcoming, and safe destination and can be easily visited along with family

“I found a brilliant book by Devangana Desai, whose research extensively examines the erotic imagery at Khajuraho,” he says, recalling how it played a pivotal role in sweeping away the misleading stories that were being told about the sculptures at the time.

But the souvenir market followed a much simpler logic: see what tourists are interested in, and sell it.

“For the sellers, it’s just business,” says Shukla.

Shukla says sellers initially noticed tourists’ interest in antiques and started selling old decorative pieces that were lying around. He says the architectural protection rules weren’t strict at that time.

As some of the sellers realised the demand, they started making small sculptures themselves.

From plaster of Paris, the market slowly moved to stone sculptures, then bronze and brass pieces, and eventually the small souvenirs that are now almost impossible to miss – key rings, cards, magnets, bottle openers and the like.

Nitin of Kuber Handicraft says these smaller souvenirs have really picked up only in the last four to five years. “Earlier, the market was largely about larger stone sculptures, which were expensive because of the hand-carving involved.”

Now, you don’t necessarily need to spend thousands of rupees to take a little piece of Khajuraho back home. You can simply pick up a magnet, keychain or deck of playing cards.

While some brass products now come from Delhi, Aligarh, and Moradabad, a few business families have hired artisans to carve larger stone carvings within Khajuraho.

Many families told me that they did not even notice such souvenirs, which is a proof of how comfortable and safe Khajuraites make tourists feel (Images: Vaibhavi Mishra)

Once they reach the market, they all become part of the same Khajuraho souvenir economy.

“These Kamasutra books that you see in the market are not based on the actual text. Think of them more as souvenirs. They have just compiled erotic pictures to increase sales,” Shukla, who has read the original text, points out.

He adds that these books are published in cities like Delhi and then brought here.

But despite the obvious commercialisation, Shukla points out something rather interesting that hasn’t happened.

“Despite being a region centred around erotic sculptures, Khajuraho has never had any kind of sex market or prostitution,” he says.

He says the town has never let the erotic nature of the sculptures turn into anything beyond tourism and heritage.

Beyond eroticism

Shukla reveals that many foreign tourists are dispoointed to discover that only 10% of the sculptures are erotic in nature

Shreya got married in Khajuraho in 2023. Unlike the usual Jaipur, Udaipur or Goa destination wedding circuit, she and her partner deliberately picked a place that felt different.

“Khajuraho was a place where there was not much crowd and even the city, it has limited crowd,” she says, adding that they wanted their guests to experience something new.

It was a three-day wedding, with haldi, mehendi, and sangeet taking up the first two days. The final day was completely free, and guests could go wherever they wanted.

Markets again played a big role in shaping their experience, with Khajuraho’s popular bamboo sarees taking over the stage this time.

“The quality is also good, and it’s dirt cheap. My mother-in-law’s friends loved them so much that they bought around 20 sarees from the local market,” she says.

She adds that the wedding and hospitality industry is booming in the temple town now.

She has returned to Khajuraho after her wedding as well and says the town still gives her the same feeling – calm, quiet, and almost like a place where you are supposed to slow down.

A sense of comfort

A town famous across the world for erotic sculptures somehow made two women feel completely unsexualised.

We walked through the markets, passed carts selling the most unabashed replicas, browsed jewellery, laughed at the moving keychains, and never once felt watched or judged.

While Khajuraho’s bazaars caught me off guard with their one-of-a-kind souvenirs, the town left me with something much more unexpected — a sense of comfort.

I might continue to call it desi Vegas, but for me, Khajuraho will always be much more than that a tiny town that somehow made us feel completely at home.