After nearly 2 grueling months of house renovation
(repair & repaint, mostly!), I took the opportunity to visit a few temples
in the vicinity of Bhubaneshwar, before the Indian Summer
strikes in all its ferocious glory.
I came across a very prettily decorated & freshly
painted Goddess temple where, as usual, I found these beautiful lion figures.
These are lions, or siṃhas.
These are not vyālas or yālis (or yaazhis).
From what I’ve observed, the difference between the siṃha & the yāli is that the yāli has
horns – evidently
those of a ram or a goat.
The olden temples of Odisha are replete with yālis – and
occasionally have depictions of siṃhas.
The yālis have been called “leogryphs” more or less
appropriately, because they combine features of at least two animals.
So this, from the Paraśurāmeśvara Temple (photo taken
by me in January 2020) is a siṃha – at least in
my opinion.
And this, from the Rājā-Rānī Temple (photo taken
by me in June 2014) is a vyāla or yāli.
They have been used for similar iconographic purposes,
but they’re not the same,
strictly speaking.
The leonine heads you may notice to the right of the picture, with garlands of pearls or chains (one chain terminating in a bell-like object) streaming out of the mouth/jaws, are all yāli heads.
(26.3.2024: Please read note at the end of the post.)
Apart from the two usual horns, there is a third protuberance in the center of the head, and I shall come to that sometime later.
The Hindu Goddess Durgā is
invariably depicted on/with a siṃha – not a yāli – but there
may be some depictions with yālis/yaazhis.
I also came across the 12th century Buddhanath Temple, dedicated to
Shiva.
Though many statues have been destroyed, and the remaining
art is mostly damaged, yet, there was quite an astonishing amount to see.
Photographing it under the full glare of the Sun, and in
the pounding heat, was no easy feat.
But I managed to capture some images.
Here’s one... the usual erotic couple!
Here’s a vyāla trampling upon an elephant (which is pretty badly damaged) – and the random fragment of a woman’s body is lying in front of the figures:
Please do thank me for half a moment, because getting these snaps was not a very easy task! 😁
I doubt if these images would be easily available on the Internet.
There seems to have been some restoration work, but I doubt how good has this restoration been.
Nevertheless, there’s some interesting iconography to see.
Truth be said, the Buddhanath Temple is a comparatively large temple, and is certainly worth a visit.
Note added on 26th March, 2024:
Those bell-like objects are ... well ... not bell-like, btw 😊
What are they, precisely, I don’t know.
Here’s a clearer image from the Mukteśvara Temple; photo was taken by me almost 11 years ago.
Evidently, there are variations on this theme, because sometimes the object dangling at the end of the chain looks different.
Sometimes they are ball-like objects.
But that is another issue, and not relevant, for the present.
I just thought I should clarify this minor point.
