Panel with Hidden Figures

Mukteshvara temple, Bhubaneshwar

This panel, on the south wall (left side, as you face it) of the deul, is an intriguing composition with multiple hidden figures. In the center is an upside-down man, whose face has four attached bodies (up, down, right, and left). The faces of four mythological beasts occupy each corner surrounding the human face, which is encircled – in an obvious error of carving, probably from an incompletely understood prototype drawing – by five armlike motifs.