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The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s4: The Face of Glory : Kīrttimukha

The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s4

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The Face of Glory : Kīrttimukha

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Door, niche and window are the architectural symbols of the passage of man to God and of the nearness of divinity; they are places of initiation and manifestation. To them adornments are added which enrich and illustrate their meaning. They are carved in the likeness of animal and man but do not represent them for they do not portray things seen; they give form to the contents of realisation at their proper place, the door, the niche and the window. Pre-eminent amongst them is the Face of Glory, the Kīrttimukha. Its essential place is at the apex of the Gavākṣa. It figures most prominently on the largest Gavākṣa of Nāgara temples, called Śukanāsā, the antefix of the open arch of the Śikhara (Pls. XLVII, XLVIII, L.).⁶⁷ On Hastipṛṣṭha temples it looks over the apex of the arch of the façade (Kapoteśvara Temple in Chezarla, Guntur). On Drāviḍa temples it dismisses from its mouth the arch crowning each chapel or each of the attic windows of each chapel in the parapet of the Bhūmis, the storeys of the superstructure; the Kīrttimukha is also carved on its cornices and those of the wall of the temple.⁶⁸ But the Face of Glory does not only crown the arches of the window openings;⁶⁹ on some temples it does not surmount, but fills the opening of the window.⁷⁰ Varied in certain details of its appearance it figures for example on the apex and also within the ‘opening’ or surface of the Gavākṣas or Nāsās of the Great Temple in Tanjore (Fig. h, p. 187).

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The Face of Glory has its main position on the apex of the arch or in its centre,

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⁶⁷ This blind, necessitated by the open trabeate arch of the brick or stone construction is made level with the façade of the Antarāla, the small porch in front of the Prāsāda ; it is its superstructure (Pl. XLVIII). Repeated on a lesser scale on the Śikhara in the remaining cardinal points, it adheres there more closely to the central offset (latā ; pāga ; Pls. XLIII, XLV, XLVI) ; on Śṛṅgas and Tilakas it forms itself the central offset by vertical repetition and diminution (Pls. XLVI—IX), an intermediate stage between the Gavākṣa of the Śukanāsā and the Jāla or net pattern covering the whole Latā or offset. This blind does not belong to the original Śikhara made of boughs, the ‘Tabernacle’.

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⁶⁸ On the apex of dormer windows, the Kīrttimukha is carved in the rock, on caves XXVIII and elsewhere in Ajaṇṭā, in the seventh century A.D. Cf. Kont-gudi Temple, Aihole.

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⁶⁹ It occupies the place of the ‘keystone’ of the arch on the Toraṇa or halo (Prabhā-Toraṇa ; Tiruvasi) of stone steles of images, specially in Eastern India (from about 900 A.D.) and of metal images in South India. Cf. its rôle in the architecture of Java, etc.

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⁷⁰ Durga Temple, Aihole, sixth century.

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The position of the Kīrttimukha on top or at the head of a building has its correspondence when worn on the head of images of divinities; one of the earliest known examples of the Kīrttimukha is carved in Amarāvatī, in a relief of the last period, representing the Rāmagrāma Stūpa ; it figures as an ornament in the crown of a Nāga, 2nd century A.D. ; C. Sivaramamurti, ‘Amarāvatī Sculptures in the Madras Museum’, Bulletin IV, Pl. LXI, 1. A head of a Śiva image from Mathurā (in the Curzon Museum, Muttra) of the 3rd-4th century has a Kīrttimukha in its headdress. Pearl strings and a pearl pouch, in the middle hang from its mouth ; two long paws are carved on either side of the ‘Lion’ face. Śiva having a Kīrttimukha in the Jaṭāmukuṭa, see Daśāvatāra cave, Elura ; a Kīrttimukha figures also in the Karaṇḍamukuṭa of a Dvārapāla from South India, Coomaraswamy, ‘Yakṣas’, I. op. cit. Pl. 18. ’. To this day it is part of the coiffure of the dancers in Cambodia.

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but features in addition on the front of the threshold of the Garbhagṛha⁷¹ to either side of the lotus stalk in the centre; it is moreover seen as a repetitive motive along the socle or base of the temples, where it is known as ‘Grāsa-paṭṭikā’ (S.S. LVII, 956) in Gujarat and as Rāhurmukher-mālā in Orissa; it is also carved on either side of the steps at the base of South Indian temples⁷² and forms the ‘beginning’ or the centre of carved panels of the ‘Vedi’ (Pl. IX).

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⁷¹ To either side of the lotus stalk in the centre; cf. ‘Padmapurāṇa’, Uttarakhaṇḍa, XI, see below.

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⁷² Especially in Malabar (Temple in Thirukkadittanam, Travancore, c. 11th century ‘Travancore Administration Report’, 1115 M.E., p. 6). In this and all other examples, the arch like curve of the side of the steps springs from the open jaws of a Makara, below, and ends in the open jaw of a Kirttimukha, above.

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Above and below, on the apex and on the base, is the awful visage of the Face of Glory, the Kirttimukha. The countenances of animal and man are fused in this mask inflated with breath, bulging with power and modelled over the dark grin of death’s skull (Pl. L).

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It usually has the mien of a lion; and is therefore also known as Simha-mukha, the Lion’s face. It is horned; the frown on its forehead (simha-lalāṭa) is gathered in a third and middle horn between the two stag-or ram horn like extensions of the bulge of the eye globes. These protrude from deep sockets, in the fury of breathing which unites the horns of the dragon with the pouches of the lion’s cheeks. The out-breathing of the animal, the globes and curves of its Mask, are held in check by the central vertical, the nose, which inhales with vibrant nostrils, and by the horizontal bridge below the eyes and across the nose, where the breath is restrained between inspiration and expiration. The inspiration is through the nose, an in-drawing of scents which the earth below sends up.

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The Kirttimukha is made by art; multiform and protean⁷³ it is one of the essential symbols in which the Indian craftsman thinks. It conveys supreme Reality which is the origin and the foundation; it is carved at the apex of the arch, on the threshold and on the base.

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⁷³ The components are differently fused, quantitatively; sometimes the face of man predominates even over that of the Lion, etc. (Tanjore).

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This symbol is known in Indian sculptures dating from the beginning of the present era⁷⁴ when classical antiquity contributed to it the physiognomy of its own lion masks. It has an equivalent in the Chinese T’ao T’ieh, the ‘Devourer’, known from the second and first millennium B.C. In mediaeval Europe it is seen for example, in Nôtre Dame la Grande in Poitiers, while in English church architecture it is known as the “Green Man”.⁷⁵

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⁷⁴ See note 70 and also horned Kirttimukha from Sirkap, Taxila; ASIAR, 1919-20, Pl. X, Figs. 25, 31 (cf. “classical” lion’s heads from Taxila; ASIAR, 1915-16, Pl. V, g, etc. A Kuṣāṇa version from Nasik is illustrated in ASIAR, 1936-33, Pl. VII. Kirttimukhas in the Gupta age are frequent, for example, carved on the railing of Bodhgaya. Two paws are added to the face (see note 70), for example, also at Rajaona (5th-6th century; “Candimau”, ASIAR, 1911-12, Pl. LXXIII); the paws, as a rule, are absent in Indian representations but they form part of the Tibetan version.

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⁷⁵ H. Marchal, ‘The Head of the Monster in Khmer and Far Eastern Decoration’, JISOA, vol. VI. p. 97 f. Lady Raglan, ‘The Green Man in Church Architecture’, ‘Folklore’, vol. L,

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It has its most explicit form on Indian temples from the tenth century onwards, were it is placed on the apex of the Gavākṣa of the Śukanāsā, etc. and comprises it. The Face of Glory generally is an incomplete face and has no lower jaw. Instead, below its tusks, from within its mouth, issues the arch of the Gavākṣa together with the many forms on, within and around it (Pls. XLVI-VIII. L.). The archivolt is filled with a scroll full of Gaṇas and music in its convolutions (Pl. XLVII). On Orissan temples (Mukteśvar, Bhuvaneśvar, etc.), a bell on a chain dangles from the centre of the archivolt; spirits of the air are seen flying towards it. The outer edge of the arch is variously beset with curly carvings; foam, flames and wings are born there.⁷⁶ These belong to and extend from Makaras which lie at the base and form the ends of the arch (Pls. XLVII and XLVI).⁷⁷ In this combination, the Face of Glory is known as Kāla-makara.⁷⁸ Makaras moreover frequently issue from beneath the pouched cheeks of the Kīrttimukha (Pl. L).

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⁷⁶ ‘Foam’ in the present example, flames in Orissa and South India; wings, not only on the temples of Bali, etc., but also of parrot-shaped ‘Su-parṇas’ on either side of the Śukanāsā of the Kāśinātha temple, Paṭṭadakal.

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⁷⁷ In Pl. XLVI, the Makara is replaced by a ‘Face of Glory’. Kīrttimukha and Makara are closely related; see infra. On a Kāla-makara Toraṇa at Terahi, Gwalior (ASIAR, 1914-15, Pt. I. Pl. XVa), female figures issue from the jaws of Kāla.

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⁷⁸ Stutterheim, ‘The Meaning of the Kāla-makara Ornament’, ‘Indian Art and Letters’, N.S., vol. III; ‘Les Déformations de la Tête de Kāla’, “Revue des Arts Asiatiques”, vol. XII. Kāla is the first presiding divinity of Rāhu, and Sarpa the second (cf. ‘Indian Antiquary’, XXXIII, p. 61 f).

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The inner circle of the arch of the Śukanāsā, etc., as a rule, is not closed below, but on the level of its horizontal tie-rod rests an image, a particular aspect of the divinity of the temple (Pls. XLVI-VII), or the inner circle is filled by a lotus flower or the face of a Deva or Asura (Bṛhadīśvara Temple, Tanjore). The lotus in the Gavākṣa in some of the earlier temples (Mukteśvar, Bhuvaneśvar) corresponds to a lotus at the apex. The lotus at the apex is also carved in Eastern India on the Prabhā-Toraṇas of steles; there it precedes, and is analogous in meaning to the Kīrttimukha; lotus (stalk) and Kīrttimukha are also the symbols of the threshold.

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The Face of Glory has, in the main, the physiognomy of an animal. In and around this ‘animal caeleste’, lion and ram, dragon and serpent, fish, bird and man, combine. Breath inflates and death hollows its face.

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Whose is the glory, whose the Face? Its forms and names give the answer. The Face of Glory is known as Grāsamukha in Western India, as Rāhur-mukha in Eastern India.⁷⁹ It is also known as Kāla. ‘Gras’ means ‘to devour’ (cf. the Chinese T’ao T’ieh) and also ‘to eclipse’. Rāhu causes the eclipse of the Sun and Moon. His name also designates the eclipse itself. Rāhu is the Caput Draconis,

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⁷⁹ In Cambodia, it is known as head of Rāhu; it is also known as Vanaspati, ‘Lord of the Wood’ (cf. the ‘Green Man’), in Java, and in Assam (ASIAR, 1946-37, p. 58; referring to the Deo Parbat Temple, Sibsagar). The Lord of the Wood ((vana) however is the Lord of Light (vana) or intellectual Splendour.

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p. 45 f; cf. also a corresponding face, in E. J. Millar, ‘English Illuminated Manuscripts from the 10th to the 13th century’, Pl. XI, from a 10th century Psalter. The Gorgoneion, “an awful monster’s grizzly head” sent up by Persephone from Hades (‘Odyssey’, IX. 633 f.) is a cognate Head, with glaring eyes, protruding tusks, etc. The monster’s Head itself is the monster.

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the ascending node of the moon or the point where the moon intersects the ecliptic in passing northwards. Rāhu is also one of the nine planets (Nava-graha) but is not visible, being a planet of an aeon which is no more.

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Grāsa and Rāhu are synonymous; they denote the Devourer. The Devourer more specially however is Time, Kāla. These are the three most frequent names of the Face of Glory. Rāhu has the widest currency and content. He has also his own myth:

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In the fight of the gods and demons, the gods were in danger of losing. They were not immortal; Amṛta, the nectar of immortality, would make them immortal but would have to be churned from the ocean. For this purpose, the gods required the help of the anti-gods, the Asuras, the demons. The gods negotiate with the demons and they agree that the Amṛta obtained by churning would be divided equally between the gods and demons. The powerful Asuras however carry off the Amṛta and quarrel among themselves as to who should get more and who less. They entrust the Amṛta to the great God Viṣṇu. He however passes them by and gives the drink of immortality to the gods. Rāhu, the Asura, sees this treachery, assumes the shape of a god and gets the drink. But while Rāhu just sips of the Amṛta the Sun and the Moon perceive his trick. They point him out to Viṣṇu who cuts off Rāhu’s head. The head however had become immortal by having tasted Amṛta. Hence Rāhu, the immortal Head, the Face of Glory, tries to swallow sun and moon whenever he gets near them. When they are partly or wholly hidden in Rāhu’s mouth, they are eclipsed.

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The myth of the treachery of the gods and of Asura-power is summed up by Varāhamihira in the ‘Bṛhatsaṃhitā’, V. 1-3, in the chapter which treats of Rāhu. Some teachers (ācārya) hold that the head of the Demon, though severed (from the body) by Viṣṇu, yet alive by virtue of Amṛta, became a planet (graha). He is invisible except at the time of an eclipse (parva-kāla), his shape is like the circle of the sun and the moon. Some say he has the shape of a serpent, others assert he has no shape and yet others believe that he consists of Tamas, Darkness.⁸⁰

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⁸⁰ Abbreviated.—This traditional knowledge however is discussed from a ‘modern’ angle in the Rāhucara chapter of the ‘Bṛhat Saṃhitā’. Rāhu is also known as Bhūchāyā, the shadow of the earth (cf. however the Balinese name of the Face of Glory, which is Boma, the ‘son of the Earth goddess’, Bhūmi). The interpretation as Bhū-chāyā, however, does not concern the Face of Glory; whereas Boma, son of the Earth goddess, in his terrestrial origin, illustrates by analogy the origination of the Face of Glory in the ground (bhūmi) of divine being.

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The commentary of this passage explains that Rāhu, the Asura, is the son of Simhikā, the Lioness. She is Nirṛti, Destruction, the daughter of Diti, “Dividing” (‘Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa’ I. IX. 41), the mother of the Maruts and the arch-mother of the Demons. Simhikā, untimely, asked Kāśyapa, the Seer (ṛṣi), for a son. Furious, he gave her a son, as cruel as Yama (Death) and Kāla (Time), Antaka (the Ender); the learned called him Rāhu, says Parāśara. It is Rāhu who gives both good and bad luck to man (Comm. Bṛ. Saṃh. V. 2).

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Rāhu who is Tamas, Darkness and Death, is the son of the Lioness. The Lion is the Solar animal. His figure is the device on the banner of Sūrya. Rāhu is also called Svarbhānu ‘Splendour of Radiance’. Svarbhānu, the Asura, overspreads and conceals the sun with darkness (RV. V. 40. 5-6; Ś.B. V. 3. 2. 2), being greater than the sun, the manifest divinity.

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Tamas: Darkness, and Svarbhānu: ‘Splendour of Radiance’, or Vanaspati, Lord of the Light; Kāla: Time and Death, and Asura are the names of the Face of Glory in the polarity of its portent. Asura is derived from ‘asu’, “vital breath” and ‘ra’, “who gives” (RV. V. 41. 3). It is the Supreme Spirit who, breathing, gives the Breath of Life.⁸¹

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⁸¹ RV. X. 10. 2 and X. 11. 6. Sāyaṇācārya explains Asura as ‘prāṇavān’, breathing, prajñāvān, ‘pro-gnostic’. Asura is ‘Prāṇa dātṛ’.

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The Face of Glory on the Hindu Temple has its essential position on the apex of the Śukanāsā, at a definite proportionate height of the superstructure; above it practically no images are carved on the trunk of the Śikhara of a Nāgara temple; from it downwards extends the realm of figured shapes (Pl. XLIII-IV, XLVIII).

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The Kīrttimukha is a mask made up of the face of the Lion (Siṃhamukha), of Death's head (Kāla) and the Dragon's head (Rāhu, Tamas). The Lion, the Solar Animal, the Splendour (Yaśas; tejas), on the flag of the sun, the symbol of justice and power, is the Destroyer of fiends. The mantra, the magic formula, on giving a lion to Mahādevī, the Great Goddess, is: “Do thou destroy my enemies” (‘Mahānirvāṇatantra’, XIII. 257). It is similar to the mantra of Rāhu: “Enemy of Soma, the Moon, destroy my enemies” (ib. XIII. 111).⁸² The lion as destroyer, is an embodiment of but one side of power; the solar animal is Power altogether. In Vedānta, it is said that the Supreme Lord (Parameśvara) is a Lion. The Supreme Spirit (Paramātman) is the Lion (Siṃha), in the Narasimha-avatār of Viṣṇu, and Nara is the creature (jīva).⁸³ The ‘Kālikāpurāṇa (XXX. 130 f.) speaks of Nārāyaṇa or the Supreme Spirit as Brahman. Nārāyaṇa is the Siṃha or Lion part of the Narasimha Avatār.

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⁸² The Vedic Mantra of Rāhu is given in RV. IV. 31. 1.

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⁸³ ‘Citsukhī’ or ‘Bhāṣyabhāvaprakāśikā’ on ‘Brahmasūtra Śaṅkarabhāṣya’; Dedication verse. The Lion is seen to emerge from the high crown of Virāṭa-Puruṣa above this image of Viṣṇu, in a relief in Bādāmī (R. D. Banerji, Memoir 25, ASI, Pl. XIV b). On the ridge of the Śukanāsā, on temples of central India and the Deccan an image of the ‘Lion and the man’ is placed immediately behind the Kīrttimukha and exceeds its height. In the temples of Orissa, etc., the figure of a lion literally springs from the Śikhara. See the following chapter.

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In the ‘Mahābhārata’ (I. 19. 7-11), Viṣṇu as Nārāyaṇa cuts off Rāhu’s head. Only the Supreme Spirit can by its death-bringing gesture give and restore life eviternal to itself, to its immortal Head, severed from the fallible body of the world of dichotomy in which strife and deceit of Suras and Asuras take place.

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In the mask of the Kīrttimukha, the life-giving power breathes forth in lion features the splendour of radiance which belongs to the solar animal; the Lion face, Siṃha-mukha, is that of Svarbhānu; its eyes blaze ‘like lightning’ (‘Padmapurāṇa’, Uttarakhanda, XI). The sun, the Eye of the All (RV. VII. 63. 1), is behind the mask,⁸⁴ behind even Death’s skull; the mask is dilated by breath, the outbreathing of the Supreme which is and makes the world.⁸⁵

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⁸⁴ In some representations from Eastern Java (Stutterheim, l.c. Fig. 11) and the Sunda islands the Face consists of a single circle, the eye. Its bulging shape fills an outline of Gavākṣa shape, thus truly a Gavākṣa or Sun-arch though no longer recognisable as window; cf. also the Kīrttimukha in the Gavākṣa, as in the Durga temple, Aihole.

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⁸⁵ Cognate with this Lion-sun component in the constitution of the mask of the Asura are the ‘birds’ carved on the Prabhā-toraṇas of images (Suparṇas or Haṃsas; Kramrisch, ‘Pāla and Sena Sculpture’, Rūpam, 1929, Figs. 14, 15), and also to either side of the Śukanāsā, for instance, of the Kāśināth temple, Paṭṭadakal, but they are not frequent amongst the Āvaraṇa or surrounding symbols of the Face of Glory and feathery forms alone curl from and around the edge of the Gavākṣa (Pl. XLVII). Su-parṇa (RV. I. 35. 7), ‘well feathered’ is the name of the small sun-birds. Well feathered and winged is the Gavākṣa below the Face of Glory. The feathers sometimes are flames: Agni was first generated from the Breath of heaven (RV. X. 45. 1).

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The Lion-face⁸⁶ carries the attributes of the Dragon or Serpent above and below its bulging countenance. Above are the Dragon’s flaming horns. The horns are rays (RV. VII, 55. 7. comm.).⁸⁷ The triple horns unite the ‘natures’ of the ‘Lion’ and the ‘Dragon’ in the triple unity of Time.⁸⁸

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⁸⁶ The Lion is the Vahana of Rāhu according to the ‘Matsyapurāṇa’ (XCIV. 7).

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⁸⁷ Agni is ‘tridhātu śṛṅga’, his horns are three (RV. V. 43. 13); Brahmā has 4 horns (RV. IV. 58. 2).

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⁸⁸ The succession of past-present-future (cf. the Trident of Śiva) is converted into simultaneity in the Face of Glory, the mask of the God-head.

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The dragon, the Serpent component of the Kīrttimukha has no chin. The majority of Kīrttimukhas on Indian temples are without lower jaws.⁸⁹ Thus Vṛtra is described (RV. V. 45. 6) the All-coverer, who has neither hand nor foot (RV. I. 32. 7). The missing lower jaw is a more forcible representation than the open mouth, of out-breathing, sending forth, emitting the breath of life. Could the mouth be closed the progression of life would be at an end. Thus, a consecrated person should smile with his mouth shut, so that he may retain his intellectual fire (tejas; ‘Taittirīya Āraṇyaka’, V. I. 4). Vṛtra, however, who has in himself splendour (‘Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa’, XX. 15. 6), who enveloped the world (‘Tait. Saṃh.’ II. 4. 12. 2) when as yet there was no distinction of being and non-being, life and death, day and night (RV. VIII. 100. 7) and who is wealthy, “comprehends within him all gods, all knowledge and all oblations” (Vāj. S. X. 5. 2), breathes out his splendour, wealth and sovereignty (cf. RV. I. 80. 6) into manifestation.⁹⁰ This was when his jaw had been smitten by Indra’s bolt; manifestation came forth from the smitten Dragon, the Enveloper, at the moment of his death. This Death does not die (Ś.B. X. 5. 2. 3); it is a condition and ever renewed accompaniment of manifestation : it is immortal like Rāhu’s head itself which is Death’s open secret.

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⁸⁹ Where the classical influence prevails or persists, as in the more or less ‘human’ faced mask, the lower jaw is present.—The T’ao Tie’h also is without a lower jaw (Pelliot, ‘Jades Archaïques de Chine’, 1929, Pl. XVII).

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⁹⁰ Coomaraswamy, ‘Angel and Titan’, JAOS. vol. 55, p. 400. “No essential value would be really changed in the ‘Puruṣa Sūkta’ by a substitution of Vṛtra for Puruṣa”.

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The Lion’s head, and the Dragon’s head are modelled on the frame of Death’s head. The deep holes of the fleshless sockets of the eyes are filled entirely by their blazing orbs. It is a re-conditioned face, not that of any mortal creature (jīva); it is the mask of Paramātman, the Supreme Spirit, under the Lion’s guise. In death’s skull, the lower jaw fallen away after the decomposition of the flesh, is not seen. In the Face of Glory it is covered by tusks, transformed into streamers, hidden by scrolls, indicated but disguised, gone over from the mask of death into the arch of manifestation (of the Gavākṣa) and the curling foam of Breath. Inasmuch as the Kīrttimukha is modelled as the Death-head, it is the mask of Kāla, Time, the Devourer.

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As Kāla, the Kīrttimukha, Rāhu’s head, devours sun and moon. Even though hidden by Rāhu, the Eclipse, sun and moon are not swallowed by the open mouthed devourer, Time. He sets the measure of their courses by eclipsing them and setting them free again to meet his dark power.

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The Face of Glory, the Kīrttimukha has thus three aspects. (1) It is the Death-head of Time (Kāla), the Devourer (grāsa), of Rāhu, the Eclipse. (2) Death’s head is vested with the insignia of Ahi-Vṛtra, the Dragon, the ophidian carrier and source of the solar power, the monster which envelops the universe and emits it. In this aspect the chinless, horned, fiery mask covers the reality ‘Puruṣa’, while (3) from its Lion’s look and breath, the Supreme Spirit, Brahman goes out into the world.⁹¹

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⁹¹ The “three bodies” (tanavas tisraḥ) of the Grāsa or Kīrttimukha are also those of Śiva who is Kāla, Puruṣa and Brahman (‘Mahābhārata’, XIII. 47. 17).

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Death and the Living Breath, Dragon and Lion, out-pouring and indrawing coincide in the Monster’s head, the Face of Glory. This Supreme identity of contraries constitutes the mask of the Godhead, the Kīrttimukha.

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The Kīrttimukha, the head of Rāhu who is Svarbhānu, radiant Splendour and Tamas, Darkness, is a seat of the superluminous darkness which has its architectural receptacle in the Garbhagṛha. Prior to its manifestation the Light is in the Darkness, for “verily this was at first Darkness (Tamas) alone. It abode in the Supreme” (Maitri Up.’ V. 2). Thus the ‘Mahānirvāṇatantra’ (IV. 25), hymns the Great Goddess: “Before the beginning of things Thou didst exist in the form of Tamas, which is beyond speech and mind; and of Thee, by the creative desire of the Supreme Brahman was the entire universe born.” The world is the outbreathing of the Supreme. Breath in the shape of foam and curls is exhaled from the open mouth of the Kīrttimukha. It passes along the arch of the Gavākṣa, the arch of the Sun and of manifestation. The curls of breath turn hither and thither, up and down, in multiple shapes, foam of the celestial waters, feathers of sun-birds, movement in which is dissolved the body of the Makara which is foremost amongst the monsters of the sea (Pls. XLVI, XLVII). The movement is densest in the archivolt where it acquires greater definition as vegetation-creeper, curving upwards, convoluted and full of spirits (gaṇa) and their music or, a bell is carved in the centre of the archivolt, (Mukteśvar Temple, Bhuvanēśvar, etc.), straight from the Lion’s mouth for “all musical sounds are in that of the bell” (‘Matsyapurāṇa’, LXXI. 10) and sound is the quality of the element ether (ākāśa), the first and all pervasive, in the hierarchy of manifestation. The movement of Breath is shown by the rhythmic path of the creeper. It is the symbol of Nature ‘naturans’ and ‘naturata’, or Prakṛti. The Brahman whence she is engendered comprises her in her transcendental aspect as Parā-Prakṛti, in the form of Tamas. Prakṛti manifest however is the ambient curve of the Gavākṣa, the Arch of Nature, in which the rays of splendour have their circumference. Thus a Lion may fill the Gavākṣa, or any aspect of divinity or the mask of the Godhead itself.

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The carvings of the Gavākṣa and its arch proceed from the Kīrttimukha and finally return towards it; as much as the creeper rambles downwards, so much also its coils compete upward until they are gathered at the apex, in the centre, where in some of the masks vibrant nostrils sniff up curls and coils, conglomerated in heavy ornament.⁹²

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⁹² Vegetation creeper, foam of the celestial waters, sunbirds and rays, the symbols proceeding from the Kīrttimukha and belonging to the Gavākṣa give form to contents such as are hymned in the 'Taittirīya Āraṇyaka', I. 1.2-3; "O Waters, whose steeds are the winds, whose lords are the rays of the sun, whose body is formed of shining rays. . . . May the heavenly waters and herbs be auspicious to us and may they bring happiness to us".

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Thus inspired and replete, the Siṃhamukha dismisses from its upper jaw, on either side some of its contents, Makaras, for example (Pl. L.) The Makara, moreover, is closely associated with the Kīrttimukha,⁹³ in the Kālamakara Toraṇa, where the Kīrttimukha crowns and the Makaras flank the arch of Gavākṣa (Pl. XLVII) or gate, etc. In this relation the Siṃhamukha, the head of the Lion, the Solar animal, is the station of the sun, and the Makara (Capricorn), the gate of the gods, their way of ascent.⁹⁴

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⁹³ Cf. Pl. XLVI, where Kīrttimukhas are substituted for the head of the Makara on either side, at the base of the arch of the Gavākṣa. The Makara may have a Dragon's head or that of a Lion or bird (Mathurā Toraṇa, 'Ep. Ind.' II, Pl. III).

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⁹⁴ The Makara, the Dragon element in the constitution of the Kīrttimukha, is collateral with it in many variations; it issues from the Face of Glory (Pl. L) or, more generally, from the ends of the arch at the base where the Kīrttimukha is the apex or finial (Pls. XLVII-VIII). The Makara, Vāhana of Varuṇa, figures also by itself amongst the sculptures of the temple, at the base, as one of the 'animals' (p. 147) or it is part of the corbel of the capital, the Śirṣa (Pl. LXXVIII). In the latter instance the jaws of the Makara are of essential significance, for in the mouth of the monster (Bartṛhari, 'Nītiśataka', 4) is "a thing of splendour". Festoons of pearls are frequently seen to issue from the mouth of the Makara, and also from that of the Śārdūla and the Kīrttimukha. Re. Makara, see Coomaraswamy 'Yakṣas', Part II, (Smithsonian Inst. Pub. 3059, pp. 44-56); and 'An Indian Crocodile' ('Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts', 1936). The 'jaws' as a place of entry and exit have the ambivalence of the Door and are carved in this double function, with figures proceeding from or swallowed by the mouth of the Makara, for example: on a Kuṣāṇa Toraṇa, ASIAR, 1906-07, Pl. LVI, jumping out of the jaw of the Makara, Devatās, flying forth from it; cf. also ASIAR, 1903-04, Pl. LXV, Fig. 11. The arch is shown to issue from the Makara's mouth, together with the Devatās, ASIAR, 1922-23, Pl. XL, f, but the movement of the arch can also be read in the opposite direction as being swallowed. Figures rushing to be swallowed or fighting unvanquished in the mouth of the Makara, are seen on Pl. LXXVIII and ASIAR, 1909-10, p. 75, Fig. 6 ('Kinnara' armed with sword and shield about to be swallowed by Makara); or the Makara is shown in its dual operation, as on a carved frieze of the Gupta period, from Sārnāth (ASIAR, 1914-15, Pl. LXIV. d.) where a Yakṣa is seen emerging jumping from the open jaw, while another Yakṣa is about to be devoured by the Makara.

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Around the Kīrttimukha stories were woven, some having Rāhu's myth for their background while in others the shape of the mask of the Godhead is seen worn or made by manifested divinity. One legend, similarly recounted in the ‘Padmapurāṇa’ (Uttarakhaṇḍa, X. 10 f. XI. 36-44) and the ‘Skandapurāṇa’ (Viṣṇukhaṇḍa, Kārttikamāsa Mahātmya, XVII) narrates how Rāhu as messenger of Jālandhara, the Asura, demanded Pārvatī from Śiva whom he was about to wed. Śiva thereupon produced a terrible being from his third eye. Lion-faced, with lolling tongue, the eyes like lightning, hair on end, looking like another Narasimha it rushes at Rāhu; but Śiva stops it and bids it to devour itself. This is does leaving only its head, the Kīrttimukha.

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Śiva thus, from his wisdom-eye sees and produces a reflex of Rāhu which commits the act of self-sacrifice. It is part of Śiva’s Consciousness.⁹⁵ Śiva as Mahākāla shares in the name and features of the Kīrttimukha (Kāla).⁹⁶ It is furthermore similar to the head of Narasimha, the man-lion Avatār of Viṣṇu whose meaning is given in the ‘Citsukhī’.

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⁹⁵ The legend of the Purāṇas ends saying that the Kīrttimukha should be represented at the entrance of Śiva temples and should be worshipped first on entering. Hence it is always found on the front of the threshold of the shrine; worshippers sprinkle it and are careful not to step on it. In this version, only the Kīrttimukha of the threshold is taken into account.

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⁹⁶ The images of Śiva in his terrific (ugra) aspects, as Aghora, Bhairava and Mahākāla have bulging eyes, inflated cheeks, tusks, etc. The basic structure of these faces is that of man whereas it is that of the lion in the image of Śiva as Śarabheśa. The Kīrttimukha, moreover (see note 70) has its place in the centre of Śiva’s Jaṭāmukuṭa. This has its noblest shape in Elephanta where it crowns the face of Tatpuruṣa in the image of Mahādeva.

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A Liṅgāyat legend,⁹⁷ narrowed in significance, tells of Śiva-Śaṅkara-Śarabha. He seized Narasimha who had become excessively proud after having killed Hiraṇyakaśipu—the brother of Simhikā who is Rāhu’s mother. Out of Narasimha’s severed head, Śiva made the Kīrttimukha.

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⁹⁷ ‘Seven Liṅgāyat Legends’ (from the ‘Anubhāvaśikhāmaṇi’), ‘Indian Antiquary’, IV p. 216. They are said to be based on a work of the thirteenth century.

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The mask of the Godhead is also the face of the great gods. In this world of dichotomy, of good and evil, where the Asuras, fallen, are the Titans or demons, the gods regain the integrity of the Godhead at the moment of strife and death when the Face of Glory of the Asura is beheld in the God’s own countenance.

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“The wife of Kāśyapa gave birth to two sons, Rāhu and Vāstu. The head of Rāhu was cut off by Viṣṇu; Vāstu was put down by the gods” (‘Śāradātilaka’, III. 2. Comm.). Rāhu and Vāstu are brothers. Vāstu is laid to rest at the base of the Temple and is its ‘plan’; Rāhu’s head is fixed above, on the pinnacle of the Śukanāsā of the Śikhara; below it is the realm of images and appearance. Rāhu’s head is also on the apex of gates; it is repeated moreover on Gavākṣa emblems throughout the superstructure, on all the Bhūmis of South Indian temples, and on the cornices of the walls. There it is carved in the fullness of its meaning, as the Head; and Prakṛti, the arch below.

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On the threshold of the Garbhagṛha only the Head is carved marking the passage into transcendental nature; the Head, moreover is repeated in bands as Grāsapaṭṭi and Rāhurmukher-mālā,⁹⁸ as an enrichment of some of the mouldings of the base of the temples. There, the ‘animal caeleste’, the solar animal as Śarabha,⁹⁹ figures for all animal-nature sacrificially transmuted.

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⁹⁸ Cf. also the enrichment consisting of Gavākṣas which is called Gavākṣamālā (‘Raghuvamśa’, VII. 2).

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⁹⁹ AV. IX. 5.9 ; V.S. XIII. 51.

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The sacrifice of the lower self, the self-sacrifice, has its legend in Vāstu as well as in Rāhu. Vāstu is Existence and its extent. He regulates the proportions of the temple according to cosmic order and cyclical numbers. He is the metaphysical plan of the temple. Rāhu, as his brother,¹⁰⁰ is imaged on the walls and essentially on the superstructure of the temple. Between Rāhu and Vāstu is the realm of appearance or concrete form (mūrti); both give it sustenance : Vāstu gives its frame work and Rāhu fills it with the inexhaustible wealth of the forms of nature (Prakṛti). Above Rāhu they are not seen for as much as he emits he also devours them. He is Time the Devourer, particularly the Eclipse and also the Planet of an aeon which has passed. This great Asura rules over the destinies of men, brings good or evil.

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¹⁰⁰ The myths of Rāhu and of the Kīrttimukha tell of the Asura at the various stages of his ‘fall’; they give diminished accounts of his wholeness.

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Vāstu as ‘extent’ of all things built by men is space ordered by art; Rāhu as his brother is the Time-agent and quickens its form. Thus the two sons of Kāśyapa, the Seer, are the ‘‘demons’’, in the sense of the Greek ‘daimon’ of the builders of the Temple. Rāhu’s likeness is higher in position while it yet has its place in Vāstu’s extent. In it is envisaged the Asura, who is Svarbhānu and Tamas as well, in the Supreme identity of contraries which is in the Godhead only, the Whole.

Cites (32)