The Eastern and Southern Groups of Khajuraho Temples

Most visitors to Khajuraho spend all their time in the famous Western Group and never make it to the Eastern and Southern Groups a short walk or drive away. That's a genuine miss, because these two clusters hold some of the site's finest Jain architecture and a couple of Hindu temples that rival the main enclosure for craftsmanship, minus the crowds. This guide covers what's actually worth seeing in each group, how the carving style differs from the Western Group, and how to fit both into a relaxed Khajuraho day from Nature's Lap Resort.

Why Bother With the Eastern and Southern Groups

The Western Group is ticketed, fenced, and gets the bulk of tour buses, which is exactly why the Eastern and Southern temples feel like a different experience altogether. Several Eastern Group temples sit inside a living Jain compound still used for worship, so you get working shrines alongside centuries-old stone rather than a purely museum-like enclosure. The Southern Group, further out and lightly visited, rewards travellers who enjoy having a UNESCO-grade monument almost to themselves. If your interest in Khajuraho goes beyond the headline complex covered in our complete Khajuraho guide, these two groups are where you slow down and look closely at the stonework.

The Eastern Group: Jain Temples

The Eastern Group's Jain cluster is anchored by the Parsvanath Temple, generally considered the largest and finest Jain temple at Khajuraho. Though built for Jain worship, its exterior carvings sit stylistically close to the Hindu temples of the Western Group, with friezes of deities, couples, and everyday life alongside Jain iconography — a sign of how fluid religious patronage was under the Chandela dynasty. Next to it stands the Adinath Temple, smaller and more austere, dedicated to the first Jain Tirthankara, with a plain sanctum but a richly carved outer wall in the same red-gold sandstone used across the site. The Shantinath Temple nearby is a later, largely rebuilt structure that remains active and houses a tall Tirthankara image drawing pilgrims year-round, not just sightseers.

The Eastern Group: Hindu Temples

Scattered a short walk from the Jain enclosure, a handful of Hindu temples round out the Eastern Group. The Brahma Temple, one of the oldest surviving structures at Khajuraho, is a small granite-and-sandstone shrine with a four-faced linga inside, notable for its age rather than its scale. The Vamana Temple, dedicated to Vishnu's dwarf incarnation, has a well-preserved shikhara and some of the liveliest exterior figure carving in this group, including apsaras in the same expressive poses seen on the Western Group's showpiece temples. The Javari Temple nearby is compact but elegant, with a finely proportioned tower and doorway carvings worth a slow look even though the sanctum itself is bare.

The Southern Group

The Southern Group is the smallest and most spread out of the three, and correspondingly the least visited. Its centrepiece is the Duladeo Temple, a late-period Shiva temple whose carving, while still impressive, is generally considered more mechanical than the earlier masterpieces like the Kandariya Mahadev Temple — read by art historians as a sign of the Chandela carving tradition formalising in its final phase. A short distance away, the ruined Chaturbhuj Temple is worth the detour for one reason: it houses a striking, well-preserved four-armed Vishnu image considered one of the finest single sculptures at Khajuraho, and unlike most Western Group shrines it faces west rather than east, meant to catch the setting sun on the deity's face. .

How the Carving Style Differs From the Western Group

If you've already toured the Western Group, the Eastern and Southern temples offer a useful contrast. The Jain temples emphasise repetitive geometric ornamentation and tirthankara figures over the narrative scenes the Western Group is known for, while sharing the same sandstone palette and Nagara tower form covered in our guide to Khajuraho's history and architecture. Duladeo Temple's carving, meanwhile, is technically accomplished but visibly later and more formulaic — a good study in how the style evolved after the Chandela dynasty's peak.

Tickets, Timings and Combining the Visit

Unlike the Western Group, most Eastern and Southern Group temples are unticketed and freely accessible in daylight, since several remain active places of worship rather than fenced monuments. . Spread across a wider area with more walking between clusters, both groups together typically take two to three unhurried hours. A practical order: the ticketed Western Group first thing in the morning, then the Eastern Group's Jain temples, finishing with a detour to the Southern Group's Duladeo and Chaturbhuj temples on the way back. Our Khajuraho-Panna itinerary shows how to slot this into a full day trip from the resort.

• Start at the Western Group early, then move to the Eastern Group by mid-morning before it gets hot.
• Wear comfortable walking shoes — the Southern Group has more open ground and less shade than the fenced Western enclosure.
• Carry water; unlike the Western Group there are few vendors near the Eastern and Southern temples.
• Dress modestly at the Shantinath Temple, since it is an active Jain place of worship, not just a monument.
• Hire one guide for a combined tour of all three groups — cheaper than three separate bookings. .

Getting There From Nature's Lap Resort

Khajuraho town, with all three temple groups, is a manageable drive from Nature's Lap Resort on the Madla side of Panna Tiger Reserve, pairing easily with your safari days, roughly 25 km, about a 45-minute drive (approx.). We can arrange a driver who knows the layout of all three groups; check our how to reach page for transfer options, or reach us via contact when booking one of our stay packages, several of which already build in a Khajuraho heritage day alongside your Panna safaris.

Related Guides

• Khajuraho Western Group of Temples: The Main Enclosure Explained
• Khajuraho Temples: The Complete Visitor’s Guide
• Kandariya Mahadev Temple: Inside Khajuraho's Finest Shrine
• Khajuraho History and Architecture: Understanding the Chandela Temples