Yali (mythology)

Yali (IAST: Yāḷi, Tamil: யாழி), also called Vyāla (Sanskrit: व्याल), is a South Indian mythological creature, portrayed with the head and the body of a lion, the trunk and the tusks of an elephant, and sometimes bearing equine features.

Images of the creature occur in many South Indian temples, often sculpted onto the pillars. There also exist variations of the creature, with it possessing the appendages of other beasts. It has sometimes been described as a leogryph (part-lion and part-griffin), with some bird-like features, with the trunk referred to as a proboscis.

Karuna Sagar Behera writes of the virala, or vidala (Sanskrit: vyala) in terms of a "mythical monster used [...] as a sculptural and architectural motif, the representation of vidala is of various types, e.g. gaja-vidala, nara-vidala, etc."

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