What the erotic pics in Khajuraho temple depict?

The reason why the sculptors or pics created those pieces of arts there is because they wanted to signify that all these feelings must be left outside the temple, before entering the inner sanctum. You will not find such sculptures inside the temple, they are always outside. They are also on Konark temple's exterior. It is a metaphysical symbolism.

The builders of the Khajuraho temple were Rajputs and were followers of Waam-maarga or left-handed Tantra, an acceptable way of attaining Moksha.

Apart from a small corner of Sindh, India at that time was experiencing 3 century long immunity from foreign invasions. It was at its peak of sovereignty and its independent status. There was not undue stress on economy due to foreign invasions. Hence most of the population was well fed, and hence available for some higher degree of thinking.

Sankara had just revolutionized the scene in India. The Creative Minority was greatly stimulated by this revolution. Although Caste system had begun to root itself firmly, it was till much liberal.

The carving of such bold sculptors denotes the freethinking creative minority existing in India at that time.

This also signifies that Scythians, Huns, and Kushans assimilation in Hindu society was complete by then.

Osho in his book Sambhog Se Samadhi Tak gives a very beautiful description of this. He says that a person is always engaged in pleasure but a time comes when he is tired of all these things going round and round as depicted around the temple of Khajuraho and then he enters the temple to see God.

That is first you have to deal with very natural things like Kaam and only after crossing this, you can attain Gyan or knowledge of God. You cannot ignore it.

There is a quote by Arnold Toynbee wherein he attributes the creative minority of a particular society reducing to merely a dominant minority. When this happens, the degradation of society starts. As long as the creative minority in the civilization is indeed creative and open to wider views, (Brahmins in India played this role for long time. There were revival movements at fixed intervals of time throughout Indian History), the civilization cannot stagnate.

The freeness of the society towards discussing sex empirically and scientifically usually says about the overall openness of the culture. I am not propagating a hedonist world view. Only thing I mean to say is, if people in particular culture are free to discuss sex in an impartial way, it denotes the overall openness.

Two points about the sculptures of Khajuraho

1. Sculptures of Khajuraho were from an era when there was not much difference between the dress of men and women. Even a hundred years back, our ancestors were not covering the upper parts of the body, both men and women, but they were supposed to cover it when they go to a teacher, or to temple of learning, so the concept of nudity has changed over the centuries.
2. The concept of human body as well as the body of everything in nature based on measurements of aesthetics was a part of Silpa-Sastra in ancient India. Look at the dancing girl statue of the Indus Valley civilization and see how the silpi had tried to depict the body measurements as well as the posture adopted by a woman of beauty and art.

The same continued to the Khajuraho sculptures. The people of that era might not have seen human body just as an erotic thing, as now. They saw it as an art of God, the most beautiful creation of God, and thus adorned the temple walls with them.

The concept of body as sin, and not as a creation of art came much much later in the society. The contemporary ideas in Indian society about sexuality and nudity are those, which were instilled in our minds by Victorian conquerors.