The New Review March 1940

Celebrated as one of the forms assumed by the goddess Durga to fight the demons the lion is equally famous in Jaina religious thought as the sign of the twenty-fourth Jaina Tirthankara and is well known in the Hindu pantheon as the vdhana or the vehicle of Parvati the wife of giva. [...] It became the heraldic symbol for example of the Western Cilukyas of Kalyana the Iksvikus of the eastern Deccan the Colas of Kosala the Senavas of Kudalurupura the Devavarmas of Orissa and the Guttas of Guttal in western India. [...] The effigy of Siva appears for example on some of the coins Of the Kushan ruler Vasudeva the successor of Huviska about the second century A. D. But his vehicle was adopted as their symbol by the rulers of Offind (Kabul ?) the Bhanjas of Vardhana the Nava Nagas of Narwar the Nandobhavas of Jeypore the Maukharis of Western Magadha and the White Huns. [...] In the east the Nandi was the royal crest of the Khadgas of Eastern Bengal the KarasINDIAN HtRALDRY 193 of Uttara (northern Orissa) the Suryavamsis of Orissa and the Vandras of Arakan while in the west it became tee dynastic emblem of the Maitrakas of Valabhi. [...] It can be seen on the records of the Vakitakas the Salankayanas of Vengipura the Reddis of Kondavidu the Sailodbhavas of Kongadi the Palltvas of Kãnci the Binas of Vadugavali and the Kalaciiriyas of Kalydni.