Nature & Animal Art!

[LandSeaLion]

The Hindu Goddess Durga is variously depicted as having a lion or a tiger as a mount.

Example from the Met Museum:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Quote:The goddess Durga, wielding an array of weapons in her ten arms, slays the buffalo demon Mahisha, who now reveals himself in human form. Durga plunges a trident (trisula) into his chest, whilst her lion mount (vahana) mauls his arm. To her left stands Lakshmi who holds two flowers while on the right stands Saraswati holding a vina. Dancing in the lower left is Ganesha with his rat vehicle at his feet, while to the right Skanda sits astride his peacock. All is staged on a dais supported with lion-feet and framed by a decorative arch on fluted columns. An inset painted panel evokes Victorian architectural decoration in the academic manner, but with Hindu deities replacing classical philosophers and muses.

Another example from the same museum:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Quote:The devotional text of the Devi Mahatmya culminates with the death of the demon Mahisha at the hands of the goddess Durga. Late in the battle, Mahisha takes the form of a man, but Durga cuts him to shreds with arrows and breaks his sword and shield. At this point the demon transforms into the elephant seen here. An inscription on the back of the work clearly identifies this rarely depicted moment in the epic conflict between good and evil. The distinctive treatment of Durga and especially her tiger suggests this painting was created by an artist known as the Mankot Master who produced an important early corpus of work in the tiny kingdom, not far from the Basohli court.

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