MOOKAMBIKA  Devi Enthroned Beneath the Kirtimukha

 Goddess Mookambika is an incarnation of Adi Parasakthi ( the supreme mother goddess) , the absolute cosmic energy and divine feminine power, who manifested to defeat the demon Mookasura and establish righteousness. The Goddess sits on a peedam,  the two upper hands lift the conch and the chakra; the lower pair rest open in the gestures of blessing and giving. The face is broad, calm and full, with the long lotus eye and the small red bindu of the classical mural type.

Above her, the arch closes in a kirtimukha, the lion-mask 'face of glory' that Kerala craftsmen carve at the crest of temple doorways and lamp stands. Its tongue and mane spill into the halo, and the arch itself is banded in gold, ivory, olive and peacock green, ending in twin makara scrolls at the base.

The throne is drawn as an actual temple plinth, with cross-hatched panels and moulded steps, and from it fall wide fans of pleated cloth striped in green and gold. At the very bottom the painter has laid out a garden band — small oil lamps,  baskets of flowers and pots of blossoms — an offering strip that grounds the celestial figure.

The ochre ground carries widely spaced white quatrefoil and star motifs, a device used on temple walls to keep a large flat field alive without competing with the figure. The upper corners close with blue-green foliate scrollwork, and the whole panel is framed within a painted border, mural within mural.