Mythical composite creatures sculpted on pillars and pilasters throughout temples in South Asia, yalis, also referred to as vyalas, are most incessantly depicted in late medieval and early fashionable temples in southern India. A yali is normally proven to have the physique of a lion and the pinnacle of one other animal, akin to an elephant (when they’re referred to as a gaja yali), a human (referred to as a nara yali) or a canine (termed a svana yali). When the physique is that of a tiger, the creature is named a shardula. It can also have horns and hooves. The time period “yali” is derived from the Tamil and Sanskrit phrases for “fierce monster”.

Among the earliest identified yali sculptures had been produced within the seventh or eighth centuries throughout the reign of the Pallava Dynasty of present-day northern Tamil Nadu, normally in temples associated to Puranic Hinduism. These early depictions of the creatures positioned them squatting on the base of a column. They had been additionally produced in Buddhist contexts by way of the early medieval interval, the place they had been referred to as vyalakas and had been normally paired with a makara.

Also learn: Gandhara, the ancient kingdom that gave world its first Buddha sculptures

Yalis emerged as a ubiquitous ornamental aspect in South Indian temples throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, notably in temples constructed by Nayaka polities throughout Tamil Nadu within the post-Vijayanagara model. Nayaka interval yali sculptures are normally two to 3 metres excessive, depicted in a rearing place with gaping mouths and bulging eyes and with a rider holding a sword or bow. They are normally proven rising from composite columns; they could stand on smaller elephants or the legendary makara, or be accompanied by smaller yalis.

Yali figures are thought of to be a kind of grotesque sculpture, meant to encourage worry and awe, and have iconographies much like different composite mythological creatures, such because the hippogryph and sphinx of historical Mesopotamia and Egypt. They are additionally related to the legendary griffin. In northern India, yalis are widespread within the gajasimha (Sanskrit for “elephant-lion”) motif, depicting a combat between a lion and an elephant, displaying the lion in a victorious pose.

Yali figures are believed to behave as guardians and protectors, shielding a temple from threats. The tame type of the yali, usually proven flanking quick stairways hooked up to temple plinths with waterfalls rising from their open mouth, is named the surul-yali. Yalis had been additionally thought of divine autos for deities, and had been used to suggest heroism and the fundamental forces of nature, tamed and managed by being integrated into structure and sculpture.

Yali figures are discovered at quite a few cave and structural temples throughout India, together with however not restricted to the Tiger Cave at Saluvankuppam, the Airavateshvara temple at Dasarum, the Minakshi-Sundareshvara temple at Madurai, the Virupaksha temple at Hampi, Karnataka, the Kailasanatha Temple at Ellora and the Sun Temple at Konark.

This excerpt is taken from MAP Academy’s ‘Encyclopedia of Art’ with permission.

The MAP Academy is a non-profit, on-line platform — consisting of an Encyclopedia, Courses and a Blog — which inspires information constructing and engagement with the visible arts of the area.