Yali – the mythical animal

This article is dedicated to Yali – the mythical animal. Carvings of Yali are common in ancient South Indian Temples. I first heard about Yali in my walk with INTACH, Bangalore in Ulsoor that included a visit to the Someshwara Swamy Temple.

Yali – the mythical animal is ubiquitous in South Indian Temples

Slowly and slowly, with more visits to other South Indian temples, I realized that the Yali carvings are ubiquitous. It was my ignorance that I was not aware of it. Any tourist or a devotee to South Indian Temples, will agree with me that on the walls, pillars, and brackets supporting cornices, this fiery looking mythological animal is a conspicuous carving. It is a popular temple motif like apsaras and yakshas.

Yali – A composite form

Yali is also known as vyala or vidala in Sanskrit. It is a composite form of many different animals. Samarangana Sutradhara mentions sixteen forms of Vyala that can be carved in sixteen different poses. These two-hundred and fifty-six forms of Yali provided an amazing repertoire in the hands of craftsmen to bring uniformity with variations.

The sixteen forms of vyala mentioned in this book are:

Sinh Vyala – Lion Headed

Ashva Vyala – Horse Headed

Nir Vyala – Human headed

Shvan Vyala – Dog headed

Harin Vyala – Deer Headed

Griffin Vyala – Vulture headed

Kukkuta Vyala – Cock Headed

Shardul Vyala – Tiger headed

Vrika Vyala – Wolf headed

Aja Vyala – Goat headed

Gandki Vyala – Rhino headed

Kroda Vyala – Bear Haded

Mahisha Vyala – Buffalo Headed

Vanar Vyala – Monkey headed

Khara Vyala – Donkey headed

Gaja Vyala – Elephant headed

These forms of Yalis differ from each others mainly in the aspect of their faces. So, a Gaja vyala has an elephant face while a Sinh Vyala has a Lion Face.

Author’s Note – I could only see and recognize Sinh-Vyala, Gaja-Vyala (pix below), may-be Ashva Vyala too, so I am not sure whether other forms even exist (and so what I wrote might be wrong and bookish). It is also possible that they exists but I could not recognize them. In the temple of Thanjavur, I see this above sculpture that can be Nir Vyala. But I am not sure and would also wait for more learned readers to comment here.

There is more to this composite form. Even the Sinh Vyala carry body parts of several animals in it. It has Tiger’s leg, horse’s body, hare’s ear, lion’s head, elephant’s trunk and tail of a serpent. At many places it is carved standing on the back of a makar.

I believe these bodily attributes are carved to signify that the Yalis carry different aspects of these animals – the strength of an elephant, ferocity of a lion, power of a horse, alertness of a hare, swift movement of a tiger and instill fear in evil personalities as serpent – making a Yali powerful than any other living being.

Start of Yali carvings

The depiction of Vyala goes back to Mauryean era, which then influenced Andhra and then it moved to Karnataka during Chola and Pallava period. The Vijayanagar craftsmen adopted Yali in their craft to a level of obsession. It is evident that the artists of this era and afterwards felt that no temple, worth its salt, is complete without the carvings of Yali.

Yali – a misrepresentation of Lion?

There is another observation, the statues of Yali were having Leonine face in North, while in South, where Lions never existed, the face was sculpted with more of imaginative features and started to appear more like a mythical animal. It is possible that the artists in South sculpted Lion from what they heard from others and their own imagination and hence the mythical appearance.

Lion Vs Elephant

Another observation is that in Indian sculptures, carving elephants and the lions was quite common. However, at some point of time, supremacy of lions over elephants is observed in the carvings.

The size of lion started to appear same as that of elephant or even larger, which is factually incorrect, and lions were often portrayed pouncing and killing elephant, again something that can happen only with a calf-elephant.

Generally a lion or a pride of lions dare to attack elephants only in night as the vision of elephants reduces in night. In the light of this factual data, I wonder can this supremacy of lion over elephant in carvings is result of association of one animal with one cult/dynasty and the other with another cult/dynasty. Does it depict the victory of one over another.

Poster war as observed in Bangalore

On lighter note, I noticed something interesting in the posters pasted in Bangalore before Loksabha election of 2019. One day I noticed the posters of a candidate along with an elephant, it was followed by of another one with a Lion, then of another with two elephants and this was followed by the picture of another one with two lions.

Personally, I am more in awe with tigers than lions. I find lions lazy, on the other hand to me tigers appear swift, agile and fearsome. Enough of my personal observations and opinion, let us return back to the subject.

Carvings of Yali in temples and its significance

Yalis are usually carved on the ways leading to the temples. It is believed that just like the carvings of fierce dwarpals with – popping eyes, protruding canines and the mace in their hands, – the Yalis are also carved to protect and guard the temples and the devotees from the evil eyes.

The Yali and dwarpal carvings can be considered as pinnacle of the belief that “laaton ke bhoot baton se nahin manate”. There are evil personalities who needs keen eyes of guardian spirits to keep them under control.

The position of Yali in the temple architecture convey other meanings as well. Yalis at capital gives a sense of this powerful mythical animal holding the roof, giving artist an advantage of enlarging the arm of girth at the top.

Yali at base signifies this mythical animal supporting and carrying complete load on itself and providing the architect a firm anchor.

Three dimensional carvings of Yali makes the building impressive by catching the attention of viewers. Pillars with numerous Yalis and riders create a feeling of movement and action.

In the outer portion of the buildings the Yali carvings add more surface area exposed to sun and is helpful in keeping the building cool by providing more area for the convective transfer of heat. In long corridors these artistic pillars give a sense of consistency and continuity with their spacing and the frequency of occurrence.

Apart from pillars, corridors, brackets, Yali were also carved on the temple balustrades. The balustrades were generally positioned at the entrance of the temple and the Yalis are carved with their claws firmly on earth, round bulging eyes, open mouth with protruding canines, looking back over their shoulders towards the initial steps.

These Yalis are usually carved spitting out the spiraling edges of these balustrades from their mouth. Their body is often decorated with necklace and bells, string of pearls and other ornaments.

Yali – the mythical animal and Leogryphs

To my non-discerning eyes, the concept of Yalis (Sinh-Vyala) appear similar to Leogryphs (Part lion and part griffin with bird like features) and horses carved standing on its hind legs lifted and riders on their backs like Hippogryphs. Leogryphs or Chinthe as they are known, are often seen guarding pagodas, and temples in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, similar to Komainu of Japan, and snow lion of Tibet.

With this information, I would like to end this article. I hope you enjoyed knowing more about the Yalis and the significance of its popularity in temple iconography.

Please click here to read about the Vijayanagara Art and Architecture