Land of seven rivers: History of India's Geography by Sanjeev Sanyal
Authors: Sanjeev Sanyal
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animal that hunts in open
grasslands and could not penetrate the tiger-infested jungles that existed in the
region. However, the balance shifted as the climate became drier and the Saraswati
dwindled. There would have been a savannah phase when lions from Iran could have
made their way through Balochistan and then into tiger territory, which would
explain why the earliest artifact depicting a lion in the subcontinent, a golden
goblet, was found in Balochistan. As Harappan urban centers were abandoned and
populations migrated to the Gangetic plains, the lions would have taken over the
wilderness. Over time they would penetrate as far east as Bihar and northwestern
Orissa, co-existing in many places with tigers. Eastern and southern India,
nevertheless, remained the exclusive domain of the tiger.
Interestingly, the Rig Veda does mention
the animal although it accords it far less importance than the horse or the bull.
This poses the obvious problem of how the Vedic people knew of the animal if it did
not yet exist in the Sapta-Sindhu heartland. One possible explanation is that the
word for lion(‘Singha’), at this stage of
linguistic development, was also a generic word for big cats and was loosely used
for both lions and tigers 9 . As we shall see, this dual use of the word is responsible for the naming of
Singapore. However, Dr Divyabhanusinh Chavra, a leading expert on the Asiatic lion,
still feels the Vedic description of a hunt suggests lions rather than tigers.
Another explanation could be that while the lion was not common in the heartland,
the Vedic people encountered it in lands to the west of the Indus (this would gel
with the lion goblet found in Baluchistan). Yet again it must be admitted that we do
not know enough about this period to be absolutely sure.
Whatever the exact circumstances of its
entry, once the lion became a familiar animal in the subcontinent, it was quickly
appropriated by Indian culture. As in the Middle East, it became the symbol of royal
power and bravery. The word for ‘throne’ in Sanskrit and many
Indian languages is ‘singhasana’ which literally means
‘seat of the lion’. Similarly, Durga, the Hindu goddess of
strength and war, is usually depicted as standing on a lion while slaying a demon.
The Mahabharata repeatedly invokes the image of a lion to convey strength and
vigour. To this day, communities that are proud of their martial tradition, such as
Rajputs and Sikhs, commonly use Singh (meaning lion) as their surname
Interestingly, the lion plays an
important role in the
Mahavamsa
, a Pali epic, that is the foundation myth
of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese
people are the descendants of Prince Vijaya and his followers who sailed down to Sri
Lanka in the sixth century BC from what is now Orissa and
West Bengal. The story tellsus that Prince Vijaya was the son
of a lion and a human princess, which is why the majority population of Sri Lanka
call themselves the Sinhala—or the lion people—and the
country’s national flag features a stylized lion holding a sword. Equally
significant is the fact that the Tamil rebels of northern Sri Lanka chose to call
themselves the ‘Tigers’. The ancient rivalry between the two big
cats remains embedded in cultural memory even as the animals themselves face
extinction.
Sadly, there are now a mere 411 Asiatic
lions left in the wild. 10 The Gir National Park in Gujarat is their last refuge. Less than two hundred
years ago, this magnificent beast could be found around Delhi and were probably
common in the Aravalli ridges south of Gurgaon. Now eight-lane highways roar though
the lion’s erstwhile lair. The last reported sighting of a lion in Iran
was in 1942. In Iraq, the magnificent Assyrian friezes are all that remain of a
beast last sighted in 1917. 11
THE LATE IRON AGE
By the late Iron Age (eighth
grasslands and could not penetrate the tiger-infested jungles that existed in the
region. However, the balance shifted as the climate became drier and the Saraswati
dwindled. There would have been a savannah phase when lions from Iran could have
made their way through Balochistan and then into tiger territory, which would
explain why the earliest artifact depicting a lion in the subcontinent, a golden
goblet, was found in Balochistan. As Harappan urban centers were abandoned and
populations migrated to the Gangetic plains, the lions would have taken over the
wilderness. Over time they would penetrate as far east as Bihar and northwestern
Orissa, co-existing in many places with tigers. Eastern and southern India,
nevertheless, remained the exclusive domain of the tiger.
Interestingly, the Rig Veda does mention
the animal although it accords it far less importance than the horse or the bull.
This poses the obvious problem of how the Vedic people knew of the animal if it did
not yet exist in the Sapta-Sindhu heartland. One possible explanation is that the
word for lion(‘Singha’), at this stage of
linguistic development, was also a generic word for big cats and was loosely used
for both lions and tigers 9 . As we shall see, this dual use of the word is responsible for the naming of
Singapore. However, Dr Divyabhanusinh Chavra, a leading expert on the Asiatic lion,
still feels the Vedic description of a hunt suggests lions rather than tigers.
Another explanation could be that while the lion was not common in the heartland,
the Vedic people encountered it in lands to the west of the Indus (this would gel
with the lion goblet found in Baluchistan). Yet again it must be admitted that we do
not know enough about this period to be absolutely sure.
Whatever the exact circumstances of its
entry, once the lion became a familiar animal in the subcontinent, it was quickly
appropriated by Indian culture. As in the Middle East, it became the symbol of royal
power and bravery. The word for ‘throne’ in Sanskrit and many
Indian languages is ‘singhasana’ which literally means
‘seat of the lion’. Similarly, Durga, the Hindu goddess of
strength and war, is usually depicted as standing on a lion while slaying a demon.
The Mahabharata repeatedly invokes the image of a lion to convey strength and
vigour. To this day, communities that are proud of their martial tradition, such as
Rajputs and Sikhs, commonly use Singh (meaning lion) as their surname
Interestingly, the lion plays an
important role in the
Mahavamsa
, a Pali epic, that is the foundation myth
of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese
people are the descendants of Prince Vijaya and his followers who sailed down to Sri
Lanka in the sixth century BC from what is now Orissa and
West Bengal. The story tellsus that Prince Vijaya was the son
of a lion and a human princess, which is why the majority population of Sri Lanka
call themselves the Sinhala—or the lion people—and the
country’s national flag features a stylized lion holding a sword. Equally
significant is the fact that the Tamil rebels of northern Sri Lanka chose to call
themselves the ‘Tigers’. The ancient rivalry between the two big
cats remains embedded in cultural memory even as the animals themselves face
extinction.
Sadly, there are now a mere 411 Asiatic
lions left in the wild. 10 The Gir National Park in Gujarat is their last refuge. Less than two hundred
years ago, this magnificent beast could be found around Delhi and were probably
common in the Aravalli ridges south of Gurgaon. Now eight-lane highways roar though
the lion’s erstwhile lair. The last reported sighting of a lion in Iran
was in 1942. In Iraq, the magnificent Assyrian friezes are all that remain of a
beast last sighted in 1917. 11
THE LATE IRON AGE
By the late Iron Age (eighth
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