Magical Legendary Creature
Description
The animal is a common motif in the Pata-Chitra style of painting, of the Eastern Indian state of Odisha. It is considered an astral form of the god Vishnu, or of Krishna, who is considered an avatar of Lord Vishnu. It is considered a variant of the virat-rupa (omnipresent or vast) form of Krishna, that he displays to Arjuna, as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, a part of the epic Mahabharata.