Amazing & Frightening Sculptures of Vidala & Kirtimukha In Kalingan Temples

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Vidala and Kirtimukha are those amazing sculptures of creatures which are seen in numerous old Indian temples . Those may be mythical or imaginary creatures only. One particular kind of sculpture that catches the attention of every onlooker in the outer walls of the Sun temple at Konark, Odisha is VIDALA. These VIDALAS are also found in the outer walls of several other temples of Odisha like Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar and Shree Jagannath temple at Puri . It is depicted as a figure comprising of part lion, part elephant and in comparable states of part creature/man figures. Vidalas were accepted to be more remarkable than the lion, the tiger or the elephant.

Some normal instances of these Vidalas are: the lion-headed (simha-vidala), the elephant-headed (gaja-vidala), the pony headed (ashwa-vidala), the human-headed (nara-vidala) and the canine headed (shwana-vidala).

The appended picture here shows three kinds of Vidala figures found on the outer walls of Konark Sun Temple specifically, the Simha Vidala (left picture), The Gaja Vidala (center picture) and the amazingly uncommon Nara Vidala (right picture). They are seen here smashing an elephant, a man and a fighter respectively.

According to some ancient scripts, half human and half animal is called “kinnar”.Even female sculptures like this is also available in Bhubaneswar.In South Indian temples, these types of sculptures are known as gajayaali,makarayaali,simhayaali and few others.The given pictures  have been downloaded from internet. Exact source not known.

Here I am posting photos of certain other peculiar sculptures better known as KIRTIMUKHA which is usually found as a motif surmounting the pinnacle of the sanctum sanctorum ( Garbhagriha) of Kalingan temples and many South Indian temples. Kirtimukha can be roughly translated as ‘ Glorious Face’.

The legend says that once God Shiva was in a deep meditating state and a saint came to him. He tried several times to disturb him but all his efforts went in vain. Finally, he tried to physically poke and disturb God Shiva’s attention. God Shiva broke into anger , plucked a hair from his head and made a demon out of it . He ordered that demon to gobble up that saint. The saint got terrified and felll on the feet of God Shiva. God Shiva pardoned him,  allowed him to go unpunished. But the hungry demon asked what to do??? God Shiva told the demon out of irritation that….you just eat yourself up. Within the blink of an eye , God Shiva  saw that only the face with the remaining two hands is leftover and the demon has already eaten up his own body.  The underlying meaning behind the story is that ….you identify your own vices ( after having regular selfintrospection) and try to eat up those vices so that you yourself can turn out to be a glorious face…..

Thus Kirtimukha is the name of a gulping savage beast face with colossal teeth, and expanding mouth, exceptionally normal in the iconography of Hindu temples in India and Southeast Asia, and frequently likewise tracked down in Buddhist monasteries too.

In contrast to other Hindu mythical creatures, for instance the makara (a typical ocean beast),  the kirtimukha is basically a decorative theme in temple engineering, which has its origin in the above said legend from the Skanda Purana and Shiva Purana – Yuddha khand of Rudra Samhita.This huge face of Kirtimukha with protruding eyes is also often  found installed over the architrave of the door to the internal sanctum in numerous Hindu temples connoting the reabsorption that denotes the passage into the temple. That may otherwise mean that…..get rid of your vices prior to getting entry to the temple. You can have a brief idea about the chronological development of Kalingan temples through the following article

For such more exciting facts about the sculptures of mythical creature

Dr. Manoj Mishra

lunarsecstasy@gmail.com