The characteristic North Indian temple with a pyramidal spire was developed in the post-Gupta period. Architectural activity swept the country during the 10th and 11th centuries. Great temples were built at KHAJURAHO in Madhya Pradesh in the 10th- 11th centuries and Bhubaneswar in Orissa in the 8th-11th centuries. The marble Jain temples at DILWARA, built in the 11th-13th centuries represent a later phase of this style of architecture. Though no single explanation of its significance is possible, it is important to consider that the joy of ultimate spiritual union is, in Hindu thought, comparable to physical union. As a man embraced by his beloved knows not of ‘I’ and ‘Thou’, so it the union of man and God, full of joy and bliss. It has also been suggested  that some of the erotic sculptures represented the ritual aspect of forgotten cults.