Again it is Darasuram. A treasure trove of sculptures, miniature sculptures and stories. Looking forward to my next trip.

The location is the Chariot Mantap. See the photo. on our right. Courtesy: FB pages of Stephen Russet. Thanks.  The outermost pillars on the three sides, eight in total, are supported by Yali at the bottom.  Yali is a  mythical animal and appears to be a cross between an elephant and a lion. The photo on our left is a close up of the Yalis. That photo is from the pages of sunilshinde.com.

For some reasons, the artists had decided to have an equal number of male and female Yalis.

The photo below shows the back view of one such pair. The front view does not show any difference. But the back views, as in the photo, does. The one on our left is a male and one on the right is a female. How to tell?  Well, figure it out yourself.