The Yali is to Indian culture what the griffin is to Greco-Roman culture. It refers to a creature that has the features of the most powerful members of the faunal kingdom, and is yet more powerful than all of them put together. The Yalis in this one-of-a-kind wood sculpture have the mane of a lion, the teeth of a crocodile, and the musculature of a horse. An age-old symbol in the visual arts of the South, the Yali composition gained prominence during the sixteenth century.