Vidal in Kalingan Temples

One particular kind of sculpture that catches the attention of every onlooker in the outer walls of the Sun temple at Konark, Odisha is VIDALA (May be a kind of an imaginary animal ). These VIDALAS are also found in the outer walls of several other temples of Odisha like Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar and Shree Jagannath temple at Puri . Vidala is a legendary animal seen in numerous old Indian temples including the Konark Sun Temple. It is depicted as a figure comprising of part lion, part elephant and in comparable states of part creature/man figures. Vidalas were accepted to be more remarkable than the lion, the tiger or the elephant. Some normal instances of these Vidalas are: the lion-headed (simha-vidala), the elephant-headed (gaja-vidala), the pony headed (ashwa-vidala), the human-headed (nara-vidala) and the canine headed (shwana-vidala). The appended picture here shows three kinds of Vidala figures found on the outer walls of Konark Sun Temple specifically, the Simha Vidala (left picture), The Gaja Vidala (center picture) and the amazingly uncommon Nara Vidala (right picture). They are seen here smashing an elephant, a man and a fighter respectively.According to some ancient scripts half human and half animal is called "kinnar".Even female sculptures like this is also available in Bhubaneswar.In south...these types of sculptures are known as gajayaali,makarayaali,simhayaali and few others.The given pictures have been downloaded from internet. Exact source not known. For such more exciting facts about the sculptures of mythical creatures found in Udayagiri, you may log in to the following link. https://lunarsecstacy.com/2023/01/12/vidala-kirtimukha-in-indian-temples/ https://lunarsecstacy.com/2022/04/09/amazing-sculptures-of-mythical-creatures-in-udayagiri-caves/