Vy?la  is a composite animal, a combination of the facial parts of a number of beasts. They are creatures of fancy regarded as powerful presences of nature, composite marks symbolising existence in varying individual animals and self-preserving the world in the 50 created creature powers of the natural the very of imagination.

As an adjective, vy?la means wicked or vicious, in the sense that they may be seen as forms that ultimately ward off the evil eye from the auspicious buildings. The interest in them is more than their symbolic or functional meaning. They stand out as finely realised forms complete in themselves.

The nature of fantasy in vy?las is that it is playful and inventive, as shown in its appearances and motifs.

Vyála is also the name of the animal shape "made by art."

(Krttima-gr?sa., ref: Samar?ng??as?tradh?ra)

It is known as Virala in Orissa or vy?la , particularly, in South India. The protean animal made by art always has the body of a lion and its more prominent versions, as well as its face. It is a symbolic shape and corresponds, within the manifestations, to the face of the glory, the mask of Asura.

The vy?la could mean a tiger, a leopard, a panther, a demon, a kind of bird or animal that is stronger than the lion of the natural world, or it could mean having more than four legs and of which there is no likeness on earth.