Amazing and Beautiful Sculptures of Mythical Creatures in Udayagiri Caves

Awe-inspiring Sculptures of Mythical Creatures in Udayagiri Caves of Odisha

In this write up, I would like to bring it to your notice a couple of sculptures of imaginary mythical creatures ( One is winged lions and another is unicorns) found in the honeycombed rock-cut caves of the twin hills ( Khandagiri and Udayagiri) near Bhubaneswar of Odisha, India. It is awe-inspiring and whoever happens to see these sculptures, keeps wondering about the possible perspectives…Are these mere fantasies of sculptors of those times or any concrete reason lying behind these mythical creatures which are yet to be explored ??? When interrogated concerning the existence of sculpture of winged lions, people often give the reference to the Sanchi Stupa constructed by Emperor Ashoka which is a Buddhist relic. Of course that is more ancient yet surely that isn’t the only one site.

In the appended picture from the Patalpuri cave  of the Udayagiri Hills in Bhubaneshwar, one can see such a sculpture that portrays lions with wings. One more intriguing part of these winged lion sculptures is that  the tails of these two lions have been joined .Has this been joined intentionally to portray the sacred symbol SRIBATSA of Jainism??

Image source: theodisha.in

In Hinduism these constructions of mythical creatures having combinations of half animals , half birds and half people are called Vidala/Vyala (Yali). So assuming you go over such sorts of sculptures in future, intently concentrate on them as they can uncover fascinating perspectives about themselves. Ancient architecture is frequently fixated on legendary creature frames that are a blend of half creature, half bird or half individuals. 

Unicorn, a mythical creature, looks like a horse with a solitary horn on its forehead. The unicorn showed up in early Mesopotamian fine arts, and it additionally was alluded to in the old fantasies of India and China. The genuine creature of the current day world which appears to be very similar to the portrayal of a unicorn is most presumably the Indian rhinoceros( i.e. one horned rhinos but not double horned African rhinos)…..

Here I am giving the picture of the sculpture of a couple of Unicorns at Udayagiri Caves , Bhubaneshwar.

Image source: THEODISHA.IN

There are numerous stories of the Unicorn or the one horned pony in various civilizations of the world. Anyway, this idea is additionally not uncommon in Kalinga of those times 2000 yrs back… as we can see one such figure at the Jaya Vijaya cave , Udayagiri caves, Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

The appended picture from Udayagiri is of a couple of ponies having wings and a horn each taking after the mythical Unicorn. Udayagiri being a Jain cave, how this Unicorn form was considered is a thing of exploration.

For more details about the twin hills( Khandagiri and Udayagiri rock cut caves), you may  log in to the following link.

https://bit.ly/3ICqkeh

Dr. Manoj Mishra

lunarsecstasy@gmail.com