Contemporary Influences

Impressed by the creature’s ability to endure pain and to sacrifice itself, Lord Shiva addressed the creature as Kirtimukha, and blessed him with the boon that the ‘Face Of Glory’ would be present on the threshold and lintels of all Shiva temples to devour the sins of the devotees who visit the temples. Hence the Kirtimukha began to be carved on the lintel of doorways to Shiva temples and on the threshold of the door leading to the Garbhgriha.

Initially meant to adorn the threshold and lintel of temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, the Kirtimukha soon became a popular decorative motif in temples dedicated to all deities. The kirtimukha is depicted as a fierce lion like face with stylised horns, a gaping mouth with protruding fangs, frowning eyebrows, bulbous eyes, matted hair flowing in all directions and fan-shaped ears.

The Kirtimukha is also known as Kalamukha, as it symbolises time that devours everything. According to O. C. Ganguly, in iconography, the Kirtimukha began to appear first in Siva’s jatamukuta or crown of matted hair as a protective motif. By sixth century CE, the motif became so popular for its perceived power to bestow protection and ward of evil-eye that it began to be carved on the top of the aureole or prabhavali of sculptures of all deities.

In śilpaśāstra texts like the Mānāsara, the Kirtimukha is described as a protective motif that can be carved on all parts of the temple like the pillars, the Shuknasi and the layers of the jagati. Sometimes, the Kirtimukha is associated with the makara (crocodile) motif, especially in SouthEast Asia and Odisha.

Before entering, worshipers always pay their respects first to the Face of Glory by sprinkling it with water. If it is located on the floor, they are careful not to step on it.

In Dravida temple architecture, the Kirtimukha is found on the door-lintel of the main shrine, on the vimana, at the base of the pillars as well as on a separate layer of Kirtimukhas at the base of the outer walls of the temple.

In Kalinga architecture, the Kirtimukha motif is known as vajra-mastaka and is depicted on the gandi or spire of the temple. In Kalinga architecture as seen in the temples of Odisha, the Kirtimukha motif is depicted with pearl or Rudraksha strings dripping from its mouth, a symbolic representation of the wealth and devotion of the king who is building the temple. In Hoysala temples particularly, you see the Kirtimukha motif carved everywhere, from the base of the outer layer of the temple to the Shuknasi, or beak like projection at the base of the Shikhara of the temple.

The motif is often found on the lintels of the gates, at the corners of the pillars, surmounting the pinnacle of a temple tower or in the iconography of a deity. It is present in all forms of Asian art.

As discussed the serpentine motif at length because understanding its significance is closely related to the metamorphic development of kirtimukha in medieval Nepal. A wooden work from Yatkha Baha, Kathmandu shows both the cloudfoliage motif and the serpentine motif emerging from the pair of makaras’ mouths and linking to kirtimukha at the apex of the arch. Although this is not the earliest example, it clearly shows that the serpentine motif (actually a real snake with a scaly exterior) has now become part of kiritmukha’s iconography. This development paved the way for the next step of evolution, in which the original concept related to the serpentine cloudscape was either forgotten or ignored. As a result, we no longer witness a cloudscape but an image of a real snake or snakes with erect hoods. In accordance with this new interpretation, the kirtimukha gradually turned into Garuda devouring snakes.

Just a few decades later the snakes began to appear as a naga and nagini, personified male and female serpents. Incidentally, this artistic development was in harmony with the preexisting popular concept that a snake devouring Garuda appears in the clouds. A transitional stage of development is a rare stone sculpture found in the vicinity of Bhuvaneshwar temple, about two blocks west of the famous Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu. It shows kirtimukha with wings and a beak like nose, which indicate that kirtimukha is now in the process of being interpreted as Garuda. This sculpture can be dated stylistically to either the ninth or tenth century because the serpentine motif, emerging from the mouth of the makaras, does not curve like a crawling snake as it does in later periods, but retains the original undulating, voluminous shape. Most important, the cloud foliage seen in the seventh and eighthcentury Nepalese stone sculptures representing an arch can still be seen here, albeit on a diminutive scale,immediately below the serpentine motif. We can detect the birdlike development of kirtimukha not only in Nepalese works but also in the contemporaneous art of the Tibetan tradition. An example is a ninth or tenth-century wooden book cover showing horned Garuda with outstretched wings holding the stems of lotus vines that turn into the tail of the outward-facing makaras.

The face of Garuda distantly echoes kirtimukha, but the crescent moon of the Nepalese kirtimukha is interpreted by the Tibetan artist as the horns of the bird known to followers of the Bon religion as khyung. Indian and Nepali Garuda is devoid of horns. In contrast, khyung, with its prominent horns, frequently appears in early Tibetan art. Thus, one can argue that the transition from kirtimukha to the big bird may have taken place in the art of the Tibetan tradition.

We should not, however, insist on this point because we find kirtimukha changing into Garuda not only in the Himalayan region but also in Southeast Asia, an early example being a series of well-known stone sculptures showing Buddha Shakyamuni standing on kirtimukha/vanaspati with a prominent beak and extended wings. The identification of the subject of these sculptures has been controversial for many decades.

Cultural and artistic changes in South Asian art quite often take place without replacing earlier elements, Garuda did not supersede kirtimukha at a particular point in time. Rather, the multiple Phases of the kirtimukha/Garuda motif’s transitional development were retained in overlapping fashion for many centuries. This becomes evident if we juxtapose two Nepalese works separated by a millennium. In the seventh-century Nepali example of kirtimukha described above , we see cloud foliage emerging from the face and mingling with the foliated tails of the outward-facing pair of lions. Compare this stone sculpture with a late seventeenth-century Nepali painting in which we find the continuity of iconographic elements such as the grotesque face with crescent moon on the head, the cloud foliage, and the lions.

The immediately noticeable new features are the outstretched wings of the birdlike kirtimukha and the green snakes. Such images of kirtimukha/ Garuda cannot be found earlier than the ninth century. The metamorphic development of kirtimukha is reflected in the etymology of certain ancient Newari words. As mentioned earlier, thecloud-foliage motif (meghapatra or abhrapatra) was known to the Newars of the valley as lapvo, “water pouch.” Likewise, kirtimukhawas designated in their artistic terminology as chyampvo, “head pouch.” A Buddhist author, perhaps a Newar, translated the Newari word into Sanskrit as kramasirsa, “the culminating head.” At the apex of a torana, or niches of the Nepali chaityas, in multiple examples, we find a cloud motif that looks like a lotus rather than kirtimukha. It is this apex cloud motif which is known to Newars as “head pouch.” With careful observation, one can detect in some examples the eyes, nose, and mouth of kirtimukha hidden in the cloud foliage of the “head pouch” motif. This may be the reason that the Buddhist author preferred to call kramasirsa “the culminating head.” Even after kirtimukha metamorphosed into a bird, the Newar artists kept the Newari nomenclature with a different spelling: chempu or chepu. The original meaning and etymology of chyampvo was forgotten, and in art kirtimukha had already turned into a bird.

Therefore, in modern Newari, Chempu or Chepu became the name of a mythical bird.

According to one story, Chempu is not exactly Garuda but his brother. I have found that this story is more popular among the Newar family of artisans and artists than among regular Newar households, perhaps because both lapvo and chyampvo derive from artistic technical terms. Newar mothers and grandmothers try to divert the attention of crying children by directing them to watch Garuda rather than chempu fighting with snakes in the cloud formations. In a seventeenth- to nineteenthcentury painting and a nineteenthcentury drawing depicting Buddha’s life, a flying Garuda, although not related to the story, is represented as an auspicious phenomenon of the atmosphere, and a label inscription given in the latter identifies the bird as Garuda.

• In Bali, the motif is today called Bhoma and has has the same function as the Javanese Kāla as a guardian spirit of the temple. In Bali, the head of Bhoma is carved both at the temple gate which marks the entrance to the holiest part of the shrine (paduraksa) and at the base of the padmasana, the holiest and most central shrine in Balinese temples. When located at the bottom of the sacred padmasana, Karang Bhoma is a guardian spirit of the shrine, which also symbolizes the forest at the foot of the mountain.

• In China it is a dragon form with a python’s body and a demon head, known as taotie (‘Monster of Greed’).

• In Java, Sumatra and Cambodia, it is called Kāla or sometimes Banaspati (‘King of the Woods’). The Kāla with the Makara-Torana sprouting from it is found in Java and Sumatra as the Kalamakara Torana. Many gates in Javanese traditional buildings feature Kāla. In Borobodur, the gate to the stairs is adorned with a giant head, making the gate look like the open mouth of the giant.

• In Tibetan Buddhism, the Kirtimukha are the Buddha’s guardians.

• In Javanese mysticism, Kāla is the cause of the solar and lunar eclipses and is the consort of Durga. In temples, the passage to the most holy courts is only possible through the open mouth of the Kāla. This step is meant as symbolic death and as cleansing for anyone wishing to get closer to the gods and to Shiva. In Java and Bali, Banaspati (Vanaspati) is the king of the plant kingdom. The name Bhoma came from the Sanskrit word bhauma, which means “something that grows” or “is born from earth”.

Kirtimukha is described in the Skanda Purana, where Shiva ordered it to be represented at the lintel of the sanctum. It is thus prescribed in famous manuals of architecture such as the Manasara. Kirtimukha is also found above sculptures of deities, forming an arch of vegetation erupting from his mouth and from his crown chakra. It is then interpreted as the deity of vegetation and of forest which grows in the soil and obtaining water. • In India the Kirtimukha is generally a lion form, sometimes known as Simhamukha. In Orissa, they are called Rahur-Mukher-Mala. In Gujarat, the Kirtimukha is often called Graspati.

Because of its perceived powers as a guardian deity that wards off evil, the Kirtimukha is a very popular motif in jewellery as well as in paintings of a religious character like the pattachitra of Odisha and the Thangka scroll paintings of Tibet, Sikkim and Ladakh.

There are many references to the Kirtimukha in Sanskrit literature. According to V.S. Agrawala, the Kirtimukha was believed to be the motif that makes the temple structure stable, and its destruction in any manner would cause the collapse of the whole edifice. In the PadmaPurana, Prabhu Shri Ram is advised to break the Kirtimukha that crowns Ravana’s palace in Lanka with his bow in order to bring down the whole edifice.

In recent years, the Kirtimukha has proved to be a very popular motif in body tattoos as it is believed that the Kirtimukha tattoo will protect the person from any harm and keep him/ her safe and healthy. Kirtimukha motif has also been used in Kosa sarees woven in Chattisgarh state.

Ancient Indians believed that words are sounds.

Kirti is not exactly “glory” but “mysterious atmospheric sound or glorious words regarding the achievement of a person” that spread through space like a resounding voice.

Kirtimukha was also known as pancavaktra, “a creature with five faces or mouths.”

Pancavaktra is also a word for a lion because the creature, due to its resonant roar, is believed to have five roaring mouths, thus symbolizing the atmospheric phenomenon of sound. In Indic art, atmosphere is regularly represented by a grotesque face or head, preferably that of a lion, which tallies with literary statements regarding atmosphere.

The symbolic identity of kirtimukha with the atmosphere is always indicated by a stylized cloudscape emerging from either a face or a mouth.

Kirtimukha began to appear at the apex of Gupta/Vakataka and postGupta-period makara toranas because the entrances represent the cloud gate of heaven. The cloudscape looks sometimes like a lotus vine, sometimes like a crawling serpent.

The significance of the serpentine motif was quickly forgotten and the motif became a real serpent; thus kirtimukha turned into Garuda.

The author takes great pleasure in expressing his gratitude to the authorities of the government and to Dr. Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Director, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Samgrahalaya. I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to them, because of their wisdom on such topics encouraged me to work on Kirtimukha. It was a great opportunity to spread awareness on defunct indian motif.

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