The Imagined Beast: How Colonial Bengal Reinvented Durga’s Vahana

Close your eyes and picture Durga Puja. You see the glorious ten-armed goddess, her trident poised at Mahishasura, and beneath her, a roaring lion— mane flared, claws unsheathed, fangs ready torip through the demon. It feels eternal, doesn't it?

- ADRIJA GHOSH

Yet history reveals a surprise: Durga’s lion, as we knowit today, isn't as ancient as we imagine it to be.

The fierce Vahana that now feels inseparable from the image of Durga is, in fact, a relatively recent invention in Bengal’s art history. What stood beside Durga in those centuries was not a lion at all— partly because the artisans had never laid eyes on one.

Imagining the Lion: Durga’s First Companion

Until the 19th century, lions were strangers to Bengal. The Asiatic lion survived only in Gujarat’s Gir forest, while African lions were known mainly from travellers’ tales. For rural artisans in Nadia, Murshidabad, or Bankura, a lion was as exotic as a unicorn.

So, they imagined...

Horse-lions: In the clay workshops of 17th-18th century Bengal, Durga’s Vahana often emerged with elongated snouts, round bulging eyes, and thick manes that flowed like a horse's forelock. The body was sturdy but awkward, closer to a village pony than a predator. To artisans who had seen horses on roads and in fields, but had never laid eyes on a lion, this became the template. What mattered was not zoological accuracy but giving Durga a beast that looked strong, restless, and untamed.

Dragon-lions: Other idols took a turn toward the fantastical. These lions bore curling fangs, flared nostrils, and long serpent-like tongues that slithered out of their mouths. Some even had jaws stretched so wide they seemed to grin like rakshasas. These were no jungle animals; they were hybrids straight out of folklore, carrying echoes of Puranic demons and village ghost stories. They looked less like companions of a goddess and more like mythic monsters tamed beneath her feet.

Tiger-lions: