The sculptors filled the Chandella artform with resilient vigor and breadth of life.' Elucidate.

Deep high relief

Figures on the Kandariya Mahadeva temple (c. 1030 CE) are cut almost in the round, so light and shadow make the wall pulse with bodies.

Twisting bodies

The tribhanga pose and figures turned to show back and front give even a resting apsara a sense of arrested motion.

Endurance

Hard sandstone and a remote site kept this crisp detail intact for a thousand years.

Sacred beside worldly

Shiva and Vishnu share walls with surasundaris applying kohl, writing a letter or pulling a thorn from the foot.

Life of the age

The Lakshmana temple's base frieze (954 CE) shows soldiers, war elephants, hunts, musicians and teachers with pupils.

Kama as a goal of life

Devangana Desai reads the mithuna couples as auspicious and partly Tantric imagery, and they affirm kama as a purushartha while forming a small share of the carving.

Plural faith

Hindu and Jain shrines, such as the Parshvanatha temple, share one complex and one style.