Kirtimukha

Common card · No. 354564

Kirtimukha (Sanskrit: कीर्तिमुख ,kīrtimukha, also kīrttimukha, a bahuvrihi compound translating to "glorious face") is the name of a swallowing fierce face with huge fangs, and gaping mouth, very common in the iconography of Hindu temple architecture in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and often also found in Buddhist architecture. Unlike other Hindu legendary creatures, for example the sea-dwelling makara, the kirtimukha is essentially an ornamental motif in art, which has its origin in a legend from the Skanda Purana and the Shiva Purana.

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