KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

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Panauti, Kirtimukha on the
stylized bracket of the secondary
lintel, Indreshvara temple, southern
portal, ca. mid-13th century.
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Patan, Mahabauddha, Kirtimukha
on a capital-bracket of the porch,
ca. 1600.
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beaked.
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Very few Kirtimukha such as those of the 11th-century
tympanum of Yetkhabaha in Kathmandu, the lintel of
the early 13th-century western portal of the Indreshvara
temple in Panauti (fig. 3), the aedicule of 13th century
Vishveshvara temple in Panauti and the jambs of the
southern portal of the early 15th century Yaksheshvara
temple in Bhaktapur illustrate its occurrence without
winged arms in the seven centuries spanning from the
9th to the 15th centuries. Likewise, the Kirtimukha faces
above or below the pot motif of the columns in stone of
porches of 16th-century Shikhara temples replicate the
age-old model.
It is to this model that the Kirtimukha faces of the Manimandapa
are faithful. They keep spouting either beads
or lotus foliage in ever new variations, testifying to the
wide range of patterns the 14th century wood carvers
mastered.
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The face of Kirtimukha preserves its characteristics in
the second half of the 16th century, but at the jambs
of the the Char Narayana temples in Patan (1565) and
Kathmandu (1560), at the Gokarneshvara temple and at
the northern portal of the Yaksheshvara temple in Bhaktapur
the mask is framed by a pair of winged arms. The
hands grasp lotus vine that is spouted forth and the central
pendant develops into coils of lotus foliage.
The small faces of Kirtimukha above the dentils of the
portals’ lintel spout forth lotus foliage, but in a single
case it spouts forth a pair a coiled snake bodies. The
heads are erect and turned away from the face. This is
probably the first example that follows the Yetkhabaha
model dated to the 11th century. The Kirtimukha on
the lintel level of the main entrance of the Mahabauddha
temple in Patan (fig. 4), most probably dated to the
legendary completion of the temple in 1601, presents a
rare exception. The hands emerge from behind profuse
lotus foliage which in a way replaces the feathered wings.
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Since the early 17th century, Kirtimukha on a variety of
architectural elements such as columns, capital-brackets
tympana, the lintel, the jambs and even the colonnettes,
are in almost all examples equipped with winged arms,
the hands clutching snake bodies.
The Vishveshvara temple on Patan’s Darbar Square, dated
to 1627, alone features nine varieties. Among these
are two examples which demonstrate the emergence into
a new era, initiated by King Siddhinarasimha Malla. At
a tympanum, Kirtimukha displays his upper and lower
jaws without spouting forth foliage or snake bodies. The
arms turn away from the face holding upright a pair
of snakes. The jaws are framed by a pair of beaked leogryphs
(shardula) and a pair of dragons. On the corner
tympanum Kirtimukha is even carved in full relief,
clutching the tails of a pair of dragons. From that time
onwards dragons attain a prominent role on tympana
and capital-brackets, replacing the snake as the prominent
aquatic animal.
The development culminates with the elaborate Kir-