ORISSA AND OTHER STATES
Throughout India and throughout its art-history we find examples of
sphinxes in temple art and architecture, depicted according to the styles
of the time periods and place. In Orissa, in Bengal, in the Deccan, and
elsewhere.
In Orissa sphinxes are known as Nara-virala, and are found depicted
on temples in Konarak, Garudipañcana, and Banpur, among others.
A pair of purushamriga is found among the animals surrounding Shiva and Parvati
on a relief from Orissa, now on display in The British Museum in London. The male plays a
flute, the female holds a flower garland.
Two ivory legs once supporting a throne from Orissa, and now among
the art-treasures in the Museum für Indische Kunst in Berlin also show
flute-playing sphinxes among the depicted animals. They are dated to the
16th or 17th century.
Medieval temples from the Deccan in central India also have the sphinx
of India among their decorations and sculpture. In two temples, one in
Harasur and also in the Bileshvara temple of the fort in Hanegal,
a purushamriga is situated among the yalis surrounding the decorative
door-frame of the temple shrine.
In Ghanpur a sphinx is supporting the roof of the rangamandapa or
hall as a kind of console or caryatid.
In Bengal sphinxes are depicted among the sculpture of some of the
brick temples. One such is the Gangeshvara temple in Baranagar.
