Studies in Indian Art c11.s3.9

c11.s3.9

'*Śiṃśumāra*' and '*makara*' are synonymous. The head of the fishtailed Makara occupied the ends of the architrave beams in early Indian art. There is no '*makara-toraṇa*' in any of the Sanchi gateways where only plain spiral volutes are found, but the superstructure of the three architraves of the Bharhut gateway (in the Indian Museum) shows all the twelve faces of the volute ends adorned with the '*makara*' motif represented with coiled fish-tail and a gaping mouth ('*karāla-mukha*'). The school of Mathura also abounds in '*makara toraṇas*' In the fragments Nos. M. 2. and M. 7, for example, consisting of the end of a '*toraṇa*' architrave the curled-up fish-tail of the yawning crocodile follows the curved outline of the stone. (Vogel, *Catalogue of the Mathura Museum*). Many other specimens are preserved in the museums at Mathura and Lucknow.