Sarabeswara

Sharabha
Shiva as Sharabha subduing Narasimha (Lord Vishnu), panel view from Munneswaram temple in Sri Lanka.
Devanagari	शरभ
Sanskrit transliteration	Śarabha
Tamil transliteration	Caraba
Affiliation	Avatar of Shiva
Consort	Prathyangira

Sharabha (Sanskrit: शरभ, Śarabha, Kannada: ಶರಭ) or Sarabha is a part-lion and part-bird beast in Hindu mythology, who, according to Sanskrit literature, is eight-legged and more powerful than a lion or an elephant, possessing the ability to clear a valley in one jump. In later literature, Sharabha is described as an eight-legged deer.

Shaiva scriptures narrate that god Shiva assumed the Avatar (incarnation) of Sharabha to pacify Narasimha - the fierce man-lion avatar of Vishnu worshipped by Vaishnava sect. This form is popularly known as Sharabeshwara ("Lord Sharabha") or Sharabeshwaramurti. The Vaishnavas refute the portrayal of Narasimha as being destroyed by Shiva-Sharabha and regard Sharabha as a name of Vishnu. Another tale narrates that Vishnu assumed the form of the ferocious Gandaberunda bird-animal to combat Sharabha. In Buddhism, Sharabha appears in Jataka Tales as a previous birth of the Buddha.

Sharabha also appears in the emblem of State government of the Indian state of Karnataka, University of Mysore and the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited.

In Sanskrit literature, Sharabha is initially described as an animal that roared and scared other animals in the hills and forest areas. Similies compare warriors to Sharabha. In the later epic Mahabharata, this form of Sharabha was exaggerated as a lion-slaying monster with eight legs, eyes on the top; living in the forest and which ate raw flesh. It is also mentioned as residing on Mount Krauncha but not as a monster but as an ordinary beast along with lions and tigers on mount Gandhamandana. The epic also includes Sharabha in the list of edible animals - the mrigajatis- the animal group of antelope, deer, hare, bear, ruru deer, sambar, gayal, boar, and buffalo - which was offered as part of food at dinner to guests. Sharabha also appears as a name of a monkey-king in the epic Ramayana, also as a proper name of heroes, apes, demons (danavas) and serpent Nāgas and one of the names of god Vishnu as well as Buddha. In defining the ecological theme in Hindu medicine related to jungle and the aroma of meats, Sharabha has also been listed among the deer natives of Kashmir, Nepal, and Sikkim. However, the features explained are of an eight legged animal of the size of a camel with huge horns and conjectured as a large Himalayan goat.