The Goddess on the Lion
Animal Symbolism in the Representations of the Female Warrior Deity in Kuṣāṇa and Early Gupta India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.26.2024.02.07Keywords:
lion vāhana, warrior goddess, Nanā, Mahiṣāsuramardinī, indhyavāsinī, Kuṣāṇa, early Gupta, DurgāAbstract
This paper focuses on the genesis of the association between the Indian warrior goddess and the lion. As is well-known, this is a goddess with a multifaceted identity, who evokes both imperial grandeur and village cultic practices. This figure cannot be identified as Mahiṣāsuramardinī or Durgā in any Pre-Kuṣāṇa and Kuṣāṇa text or inscription. A considerable influence on her burgeoning representation was probably exercised by Nanā, a Hellenistic goddess, who takes on characteristics of the Mesopotamian Inanna-Ištar, typically associated with lions. Significantly, in the early centuries CE, this feline was still a widespread species on the Subcontinent and had already become identified as the fiercest wild predator, informing the long-lasting lion-warrior imagery. While the background and the rise of Durgā have been the object of several studies, relatively little attention has been paid to her symbolic association with the lion as a key perspective that may contribute to providing a deeper understanding of both the shaping and the significance of this divine figure. By analysing some of the most significant of the earliest iconographic and textual representations, this paper is an initial attempt to employ the feline attribute as a prism to trace the earliest phase in the historical process of the development of the goddess. It may provide insights regarding both the degree of entanglement between local cults and early Hinduism, and the interrelation between the representation of this warrior goddess and kingship ideology in Kuṣāṇa and early Gupta India.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Agrawala, R. C. 1958. The Goddess Mahiṣāsuramardinī in Early Indian Art. In: Artibus Asiae 21(2): 123–130. https://doi.org/10.2307/3248870. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3248870
Altekar, A. S. 1957. The Coinage of the Gupta Empire. Varanasi: Numismatic Society of India, Banaras Hindu University.
Barnett, R. et al. 2014. Revealing the Maternal Demographic History of Panthera Leo Using Ancient DNA and a Spatially Explicit Genealogical Analysis. In: BMC Evolutionary Biology 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-14-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-14-70
Bose, S. 2020. Mega Mammals in Ancient India: Rhinos, Tigers, and Elephants. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190120412.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190120412.001.0001
Bühnemann, G. 2023. Patterns of Dependency in the Buddhist Tantric Iconography of Nepal. In: J. Hegewald (ed.). Embodied Dependencies and Freedoms: Artistic Communities and Patronage in Asia. Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter: 239–252. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110979855-008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110979855-008
Coburn, T. B. 1988. Devī-Māhātmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Dallapiccola, A. L. 2012. Vāhanas. In: K. A. Jacobsen et al. (eds). Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. www.brillonline.com (accessed on 4.06.2017).
Dębicka-Borek, E. 2019. From Kāñcīpuram to Ahobilam and Back: Narasiṃha Chasing the Demons in the Kāñcīmāhātmya 3. In: Folia Orientalia 56: 159–185. https://doi.org/10.24425/for.2019.130708. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24425/for.2019.130708
Divakaran, O. 1984. Durgā the Great Goddess: Meanings and Form in the Early Period. In: M. W. Meister (ed.). Discourses on Śiva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the Nature of Religious Imagery, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 271–288. https://doi.org/10.2307/2056139. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2056139
Divyabhanusinh. 2008. The Story of Asia’s Lions. Mumbai: Marg Publications.
Falk, H. 2015. Kushan Rule Granted by Nana: The Background of a Heavenly Legitimation. In: H. Falk (ed.). Kushan Histories: Literary Sources and Selected Papers from a Symposium at Berlin, December 5 to 7, 2013 (Monographien zur indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie, 23). Bremen: Hempen Verlag: 265–299. https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1163.
Falk, H. 2019. Kushan Religion and Politics. In: Bulletin of the Asia Institute 29: 1–55.
Francfort, H.-P. 2012. Ai Khanoum ‘Temple with Indented Niches’ and Takht-i Sangin ‘Oxus Temple’ in Historical Cultural Perspective: Outline of a Hypothesis about the Cults. In: Parthica 14: 109–136.
Ghose, M. 2006. Nana: The “Original” Goddess on the Lion. In: Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology 1: 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JIAAA.2.301927. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JIAAA.2.301927
Gokhale, B. G. 1974. Animal Symbolism in Early Buddhist Literature and Art. In: East and West 24(1/2): 111–120.
Lakshminarayan, R. and D. C. Sircar (eds). 1953–1954. Epigraphia Indica 30. New Delhi: S. Narayan & Sons.
Lubin, T. 2020. Retrofitting a Vedic Origin for a Classical Hindu Goddess. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society 140(1): 37–46. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.140.1.0037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.140.1.0037
Mitterwallner, G. von. 1976. The Kuṣāṇa Type of the Goddess Mahiṣāsuramardinī as Compared to the Gupta and Mediaeval Types. In: Cultural Department of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany (ed.). German Scholars on India. Vol. 2. Bombay: Nachiketa Publications: 196–213.
Mukherjee, B. N. 1969. Nanā on Lion: A Study in Kushāṇa Numismatic Art. Calcutta: Asiatic Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00128745. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00128745
Mukherjee, B. N. 1985. Foreign Elements in Iconography of Mahishāsuramardinī: The War Goddess of India. In: Zeitschriften der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Supplement 6, 22: 404–414.
Parpola, A. 2015. The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford–New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226909.001.0001
Passi, A. (ed.). 2008. Devī-Māhātmya. Il MS. 4510 della Biblioteca Civica “Vincenzo Joppi” di Udine (with English translation). Udine: Società Indologica “Luigi Pio Tessitori.”
Pontillo, T. and L. Sudyka. 2016. Prominent Chieftains Depicted as Ferocious Wild Beasts. In: S. Bindi, E. Mucciarelli and T. Pontillo (eds). Cross-cutting South Asian Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Delhi: DK Printworld.
Raven, E. M. 2020. Beauty on the Beast. In: L. R. Greaves and A. Hardy (eds).
Religions, Society, Trade and Kingship: Archaeology and Art in South Asia and Along the Silk Road, 5500 BCE–5th Century CE. New Delhi: Dev: 261–282.
Rosenfield, J. M. 1967. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Salomon, R. 2021. Presenting a Series of Royal Portraits in Fifth-Century Malwa: A Proposed Reinterpretation of the Chhoti Sadri Inscription. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society 141(2): 273–287. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.141.2.0273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.141.2.0273
Sarkar, B. 2017. Heroic Shāktism: The Cult of Durgā in Ancient Indian Kingship.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266106.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266106.001.0001
Schnitzler, A. and L. Hermann. 2019. Chronological Distribution of the Tiger Panthera tigris and the Asiatic Lion Panthera leo persica in Their Common Range in Asia. In: Mammal Review 49(4): 340–353. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12166
Sims-Williams, N. 2004. The Bactrian Inscription of Rabatak: A New Reading. In: Bulletin of the Asia Institute 18: 53–68.
Sohoni, P. 2017. Old Fights, New Meanings: Lions and Elephants in Combat. In: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 67/68: 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1086/691602. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/691602
Srinivasan, D. M. 1997. Many Heads, Arms and Eyes: Origin, Meaning and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art. Studies in Asian Art and Archaeology 20. Leiden‒New York‒Köln: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004644977. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004644977
Srinivasan, D. M. 2016. Lakṣmī on the Lion. In: P. P. Dhar and G. J. R. Mevissen (eds). Temple Architecture and Imagery of South and Southeast Asia: Prāsādanidhi: Papers Presented to Professor M. A. Dhaky. Delhi: Aryan Books International: 246–261.
Srinivasan, D. M. 2022. Self-Coronation: India’s Earliest Victors Inherit the Olympian Gesture. In: Archives of Asian Art 72(1): 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1215/00666637-9577696. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00666637-9577696
Stietencron, H. von. 2005. The Goddess Durgā Mahiṣāsuramardinī: Myth, Representation, and Historical Role in the Hinduization of India. In: Hindu Myth, Hindu History: Religion, Art, and Politics. New Delhi: Permanent Black: 115–171.
Thapar, V. et al. 2013. Exotic Aliens: The Lion & the Cheetah in India. New Delhi: Aleph. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605314000465. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605314000465
Vaidya, P. L. (ed.). 1969–1971. The Harivamśa: Being the Khila, or Supplement to the Mahābhārata, 2 Vols. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.html#HV (accessed on 27.01.2023).
Vemsani, L. 2023. Hinduism in Middle India: Narasimha, The Lord of the Middle. London: Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350138544. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350138544
Viennot, O. 1956. The Goddess Mahishâsuramardinî in Kushâna Art. In: Artibus Asiae 19(3/4): 368–373. https://doi.org/10.2307/3248773. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3248773
Westenholz, J. G. 2014. Trading the Symbols of the Goddess Nanaya. In: P. Wick and V. Rabens (eds). Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West.
Leiden: Brill: 167–198. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004255302_008. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004255302_008
Yokochi, Y. 2004. The Rise of the Warrior Goddess in Ancient India: A Study of the Myth Cycle of Kauśikī-Vindhyavāsinī in the Skandapurāṇa. PhD Dissertation (supervisor H. T. Bakker). University of Groningen.
Yokochi, Y. 2013. The Skandapurāṇa, Vol. III. Adhyāyas 34.1–61, 53–69: Critical Edition with an Introduction and Annotated English Synopsis. Groningen‒Leiden: Egbert Forsten–Brill. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15728536- 06403008.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
