A carved ivory knife handle, Orissa, 17th century

the short cylindrical shaft terminating in a carved pommel rendered in leonine form, either Narasimha or simha-yali, with bulbous eyes, flared nostrils and open mouth

Prof. Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998), New York
Acquired in London in 1987

Narasimha is the lion-headed avatar of Vishnu. Comparable examples are in the Brooklyn Museum, see A. Poster, Indian and South-East Asian Ivories. Selections from Local Collections, New York, 1982, no.19; and the San Francisco Museum of Asian Art, see B.N. Goswamy, Essence of Indian Art, 1986, p.155, no.113, where the subject is identified as a vyala or yali, an imaginary beast sometimes shown with a lion-head (simha-yali).