First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"....before finally taking leave of the seven temples, I shall state my opinion, that they are most probably the finest aggregate number of temples congregated in one place to be met with in all India, and all are within a stone’s throw of one another (Burt 1840: 162-167)."
"“perhaps the largest group of costly Hindu temples that is now to be found in Northern India.”"
"The Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta (1304-1369) who visited Khajuraho in 1335, provided the earliest record of Muslim iconoclasm at the site. He wrote that at Kajarrti, ..there is a great pond about a mile in length near which are temples containing idols which the Muslims have mutilated. In the centre of that pond there are three cupolas of red stone, each of three storeys; and at the four corners of the pond are cupolas in which live a body of the jogis who have clotted their hair and let them grow so that they become as long as their bodies and on account of their practicing asceticism their colour had become extremely yellow. Many Musalmans follow them in order to take lessons from them. Itis said that, whoever is subjected to diseases like the leprosy or elephantiasis lives with them for a long period of time and is cured by the permission of God."
"We went from Parwan [Narwar] to Kajarra [Khajuraho], where there is a large tank about a mile long having on its banks temples with idols, which have been made examples of [i.e. mutilated] by the Muslims."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.