In the beginning Khajuraho used to be known as Khajurvatika. Khajur dates and vatika garden thus the garden of dates. According to one legend there were two golden trees of dates at the entrance of the city hence it was called khajurvatika.But the facts are that there were many trees of Dates. Though Khajuraho has seen many ups and downs in its history but in the period of Chandela dynasty it has seen its best days. They were the rajputs of the lunar race. They ruled here between 9th to 13th centuries. During this period Khajuraho reached to its climax in art, architecture, politics economics etc. Chandravarman was the first king of this dynasty. According to one legend the mother of King Chandravarman became pregnant by the moon god and she became very worried that how could she show her face to the world then on the advice of the god moon she shifted herself to another city but came back after giving birth to chandravarman. When he became king he did many rituals in order to purify the deeds of her mother done with the moon god. He constructed, lakes gardens temples etc. The temples of Khajuraho are very erotic and tell us about the state of mind of the people of that period.
It is said that people were very religious of that time and they realized that any act pertaining to sex would be an obstacle in between them and the god.Hence the population started decreasing but the kings wanted more population for their army hence to remove from the mind of the public that sex is not a bad act, it is an accepted act by the gods they made the figures carved on the temples so that public could thinks that if it was a bad act it would have never been displayed on the temples
The second reason is that the Chandelas displayed the Kama sutra the sensuality and the sexual acts as a ritual symbolic to the tantrik faith. The Chandelas were the follower of the tantrik cult, which is the satisfaction, and the pleasure of the worldly desires. The tantrism is one step more closer to the achievement of the ultimate liberation or moksha or salvation.