Long before Khajuraho became a shorthand for erotic sculpture, Sisir Kumar Mitra’s history reveals the formidable dynasty that made those temples possible. The impregnable fortress of Kalinjar, apogee of the Chandellas. The erotic sculptures at Khajuraho have become so inseparable from the place that the temples are often reduc ed, in the popular imagination, to the sensual figures carved on their walls. Yet the Chandellas, the powerful dynasty that built Khajuraho, were not