Studies in Indian Art c13.s5.t3: III. Kirtimukha

c13.s5.t3.1

The term *kīrtimukha* was at the outset applied to the chaitya-window or the big round opening through which the excavation work began and gradually proceeded. It was virtually the gaping mouth of the excavated interior. The curve of the opening was rudimentary in the earliest caves being broader at the base; it then became hemispherical, the two open ends of the curve were still further drawn inside until it became a perfect circle in the Gupta period. Apart from its functional role as an opening for scooving in the rock and subsequently for admitting light and air into the dark interior of the hall, the *kīrtimukha* was also adopted as a decorative pattern and its miniature repetitions were employed to beautify the cornice mouldings or doorways or other portions of the facade. In this new setting the small chaitya-windows enclosed human heads, mostly female faces peeping out of windows (*gavākṣa* or *vitīyana*). On the facade of the chaitya-hall of cave XIX at Ajaṇṭā, we find the miniature chaitya-windows with female faces employed as a very elegant decorative device on the exterior of the cave. In course of time the human faces were substituted by lion-faces as decorative members of the chaitya-window patterns, and these became known as *kīrtimukhas* or *kīrtivaktras*. On the pillars of the Gupta period we find the *kīrtimukha* decoration in which the lion-face has been accepted as a natural member of the pattern. But the *kīrtimukhas* attained to their fullest possibility as an architectural member on the front portion of the *śikhara* of a Hindu temple. The functional chaitya-window or the large circular opening of the excavated caves had long been superseded or left behind, but it was retained as the principal decorative element on the facade of the *śikhara*. This monumental lion-face was termed *kīrtivaktra* (*tadūrdhve kīrtivaktraṃ tu nirgamākītim bhāvayet*, Mānasāra 18. 146) or *harivaktra* (*kīrtivaktraṃ harivaktraṃ choktavat kārayet sudhīḥ*, Mānasāra, 18. 151).