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.
A sharabha is initially described as an animal that roared and scared other animals in the hills and forest areas. Similies compare warriors to a sharabha. In the later epic Mahabharata, this form of a sharabha was exaggerated as a lion-slaying monster with eight legs, eyes on the top; living in the forest and which ate raw flesh.