Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s3.7

c9.s3.7

Early Indian art invented a number of fanciful figures as *Siṃha-vyāla, Gaja-vyāla, Aśva-vyāla, Nara-vyāla, Vṛisha-vyāla, Mesha-vyāla, Śuka-vyāla, Mahisha-vyāla*, etc, in which a particular head was joined to a different body. Later *Śilpa* texts give their number as sixteen each represented in sixteen poses, giving an aggregate of 256 forms (*Aparājita-Pṛichchhā*, 233. 4-6, *Iti shoḍasha vyālāni uktāni mukhabhedataḥ*). Their variety and poses, once formulated were subject to elaboratiou by ingenious sculptors, ivory-carvers, etc. as in the art of Begram plaques. The meaning of these motifs in Indian literature is that they are so many attendants (*Gaṇa-Pramatha*) of one *Rudra*. Each individual although born as a human being carries in his face the physiognomy of a bird or an animal, the different forms being called *Īhā-mṛiga*, animals of fancy or fabulous creatures. The germs of the idea are met with in the Ṛigveda (VII. 104. 22) where the mythical forms are called *Yātu* and six illustrative names are given. For example, owl (*Ulūka-yātu*), owlet (*Śuśulūka-yātu*), dog (*Śva yātu*), cuckoo (*Koka-yātu*), eagle (*Suparṇa-yātu*) and vulture (*Gṛidhra-yātu*). These are associated in Ṛigveda with Indra, as the Purāṇic Gaṇas with Rudra and they are called *Asuras* (Brahma Purāṇa, 213. 93, 99), *Dānavas* (Matsya, 163. 1-4 ; Harivaṃśa 3. 45) also *Niśāchara-Gaṇa*.