File:01022 Kandariya Mahādeva temple, Western Group Khajuraho 005.jpg

English: The Kandariya Mahadeva temple of Khajurajo is a Shiva temple (1025–1035 CE). It is the largest and tallest surviving temple in the Khajuraho group of monuments. Along with the Lakshmana temple of Khajuraho, it is one of the best examples of complete Nagara-style Hindu temple architecture, Hindu art and sophisticated construction techniques by early 11th-century. The temple had over 872 surviving art panels on the outside and inside, when Alexander Cunningham's team counted them in the 19th century. Many more were nearly completely damaged or missing. A few dozen of the surviving panels depict kama/mithuna scenes and celebrate sex, sometimes in acrobatic poses – these are often photographed and used in tourist literature, bringing curiosity and fame to Khajuraho.

This sandhara-style Hindu temple stands on a massive platform, sharing the jagati with the Jagadambi temple for goddess Parvati to its north. Steps lead to the top of the platform. A makara-torana leads into the profusely decorated mandapa of the Kandariya Mahadeva temple. The mandapa – sometimes the platform itself – was and continues to be used for classical Hindu dance performances. The large temple has a mukhamandapa (entrance hall), a sabhamandapa (assembly hall), mahamandapa (pilgrims prayer, also the dance hall), antarala (vestibule) and garbhagriha (sanctum for darshana and offerings). The temple provides a pradakshina patha for clockwise circumambulatory around the sanctum.

The temple's sikhara is majestic and has 84 fractal-like replicas giving a sense of Kailasha mountain range – the home of Shiva. It dynamically illustrates and embodies Adam Hardy's "emanating cosmos" – a recurring theme in Hindu philosophy (Adam Hardy (2016), Hindu temples and Emanating Cosmos, Religions and the Arts, 20, 112-134). Inside the sanctum is a marble Shiva lingam. The Mahamandapa includes notable Shaiva tradition's artwork of Sadashiva, Nataraja, Tripurantaka and Andhakasur. The temple extensively includes artwork from Shaktism tradition (Saptamatrikas) and Vaishnavism tradition (Vishnu avatars and Lakshmi). The panels include secular and cultural scenes, as well as scenes from major Hindu epics.