Sukanasa

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Sukanasa with Shiva Nataraja, Jambulinga Temple, Pattadakal. Pattadakal si1479.jpg
Sukanasa with Shiva Nataraja, Jambulinga Temple, Pattadakal.

In Hindu temple architecture a sukanasa (Sanskrit : शुकनास, IAST: śukanāsa) or sukanasi is an external ornamented feature over the entrance to the garbhagriha or inner shrine. It sits on the face of the sikhara tower (in South India, the vimana) as a sort of antefix. [2] The forms of the sukanasa can vary considerably, but it normally has a vertical face, very often in the form of a large gavaksha or "window" motif, with an ornamental frame above and to the sides, forming a roughly triangular shape. [3] In discussing temples in Karnataka local authors tend to use "sukanasi" (the preferred form in these cases) as a term for the whole structure of the antarala or ante-chamber from the floor to the top of the sukanasa roof above. [4]

Hindu temple architecture the art, practice, and elements in the planning, designing and building of Hindu temples

Hindu temple architecture as the main form of Hindu architecture has many varieties of style, though the basic nature of the Hindu temple remains the same, with the essential feature an inner sanctum, the garbha griha or womb-chamber, where the primary Murti or the image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south and Meru tower in Balinese temple. The shrine building often includes an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), a mandapa congregation hall, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa. There may further mandapas or other buildings, connected or detached, in large temples, together with other small temples in the compound.

Garbhagriha Innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple

Garbhagriha is the sanctum sanctorum, the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple where resides the murti of the primary deity of the temple. Literally the word means "womb chamber", from the Sanskrit words garbha for womb and griha for house. Generally in Hinduism only 'priests' (pujari) are allowed to enter this chamber. Although the term is often associated with Hindu temples, it is also found in Jain and Buddhist temples.

Vimana (architectural feature) tower above the sanctum in Hindu temples

Vimana is the structure over the garbhagriha or inner sanctum in the Hindu temples of South India and Odisha in East India. In typical temples of Odisha using the Kalinga style of architecture, the Vimana is the tallest structure of the temple, as it is in the shikhara towers of temples in West and North India. By contrast, in large South Indian temples, it is typically smaller than the great gatehouses or gopuram, which are the most immediately striking architectural elements in a temple complex.

Contents

It often contains an image of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated inside this frame, or other figurative subjects. The vertical face may be the termination of a horizontally-projecting structure of the same shape, [5] especially in temples with an antarala or ante-chamber between the mandapa or public worship hall and the garbhagriha. In these cases the projection is over the antarala. [6] Some temples have large gavaksha motifs, in effect sukanasas, on all four faces of the shikara, and there may be two tiers of sukanasa going up the tower. Sukasanas are also often found in Jain temples. [7]

Antarala

Antarala is a small antechamber or foyer between the garbhagriha (shrine) and the mandapa, more typical of north Indian temples.

Mandapa

Mandapa in Indian architecture is a pillared outdoor hall or pavilion for public rituals.

Hoysala crest of warrior fighting a lion, on the roof of the sukanasa projection, Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi Hoysala crest on sukanasi in Kedareshvara temple at Balligavi (cropped).JPG
Hoysala crest of warrior fighting a lion, on the roof of the sukanasa projection, Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi

The name strictly means "parrot's beak", and is often referred to as the "nose" of the temple superstructure, as part of the understanding of the temple as representing in its various parts the anatomy of the deity. [8] Various early texts set out proportions for the shape of the sukasana, centred on a circular gavaksha, and its size in proportion to the rest of the temple, especially the height of the shikara. They vary and in any case are not always followed. [9]

Especially in the south, the sukanasa may be topped by a kirtimukha head, the open-mouthed monster swallowing or vomiting the rest of the motif below. [10] As with the gavaksha, the motif represents a window through which the light of the deity shines out across the world. [11]

Kirtimukha

Kirtimukha is the name of a swallowing fierce monster face with huge fangs, and gaping mouth, very common in the iconography of Hindu temple architecture and Buddhist architecture in South Asia and Southeast Asia. In Southeast Asia it is often referred to as Kala, and in China it is known as the taotie, meaning (Monster of Greed).

History

The sukanasa appears to develop from later forms of the large "chaitya arch" on the outside facade of Buddhist chaitya halls. Initially these were a large practical window admitting light to the interior, and reflecting the shape of the curved internal roof, based on timber and thatch predecessors. Later, these large motifs developed into a setting for sculpture that was largely "blind" or not actually an opening in the wall. Both phases now only survive in rock-cut "cave temples" at sites such as the Ajanta Caves, where the first type can be seen at Caves 9, 10, 19, and 26, and Ellora, where Cave 10 shows the second type.

Chaitya prayer hall from Buddhist tradition

A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, or caitya refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in South Asian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it includes a stupa at one end. Strictly speaking, the chaitya is the stupa itself, and the Indian buildings are chaitya halls, but this distinction is often not observed. Outside India, the term is used by Buddhists for local styles of small stupa-like monuments in Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia and elsewhere. In the historical texts of Jainism and Hinduism, including those relating to architecture, chaitya refers to a temple, sanctuary or any sacred monument.

Ajanta Caves Ancient Buddhist cave monuments in Maharashtra India

The Ajanta Caves are 30 (approximately) rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures described as among the finest surviving examples of ancient Indian art, particularly expressive paintings that present emotion through gesture, pose and form.

According to Adam Hardy, "possibly the first use of a sukanasa in a Dravida temple" is the Parvati temple, Sandur (7–8th century), using his terminology where "Karnataka Dravida" architecture is treated as a form of Dravidian architecture; others describe this as Badami Chalukya architecture or similar terms. [12]

Professor Adam Hardy is an architect and architectural historian, and Professor of Asian Architecture at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. He is Director of PRASADA, a centre bringing together research and practice in South Asian art and architecture.

Dravidian architecture architectural idiom that emerged in the Southern part of the Indian subcontinent or South India, consisting primarily of temples with pyramid shaped towers

Dravidian architecture is an architectural idiom in Hindu temple architecture that emerged in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent or South India, reaching its final form by the sixteenth century. It consists primarily of Hindu temples where the dominating feature is the high gopura or gatehouse; large temples have several. Mentioned as one of three styles of temple building in the ancient book Vastu shastra, the majority of the existing structures are located in the Southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Various kingdoms and empires such as the Cholas, the Chera, the Kakatiyas, the Pandyas, the Pallavas, the Gangas, the Kadambas, the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas, the Hoysalas, and Vijayanagara Empire among others have made substantial contribution to the evolution of Dravidian architecture. This style of architecture can also be found in parts of North India, Northeastern and central Sri Lanka.

Badami Chalukya architecture

The Badami Chalukya architecture was a temple building idiom that evolved in the 5th – 8th centuries in the Malaprabha river basin, in present-day Bagalkot district of Karnataka state, under the Chalukya dynasty. This style is sometimes called the Vesara style and Chalukya style, a term that also includes the much later Western Chalukya architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries. Early Chalukya architecture, used by George Michell and others, equates to Badami Chalukya. The earliest Badami Chalukya temples date back to around 450 A.D. in Aihole when the Badami Chalukyas were vassals of the Kadambas of Banavasi. According to historian K.V. Sounder Rajan, the Badami Chalukyas contribution to temple building matched their valor and their achievements in battle.

In Hoysala architecture, the sukanasa is typically brought forward over an antarala, and the royal emblem of the Hoysala Empire, the mythical founder Sala stabbing a lion (according to the legend a tiger, but the two are not distinguished in Indian art), often stands over the barrel roof as sculpture in the round. [13] Among other places, this can be seen at the Bucesvara Temple, Koravangala, both temples at the Nageshvara-Chennakeshava Temple complex, Mosale, and the Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi. [14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Michell, 105
  2. ↑ Kramrisch, 240–241
  3. ↑ Harle, 140
  4. ↑ Krishna Murthy
  5. ↑ Harle, 147
  6. ↑ Hardy, 34
  7. ↑ Krishna Murthy
  8. ↑ Kramrisch, 240
  9. ↑ Kramrisch, 240–242
  10. ↑ Kramrisch, 241
  11. ↑ Kramrisch, 241
  12. ↑ Hardy, 74–75
  13. ↑ Foekema, 22
  14. ↑ Harle, 257

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Govindanahalli human settlement in India

Govindanahalli is a small village in Mandya district of Karnataka state, southern India.

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