Could this story have had a Harappan root? We do not know. There are no lions in the Harappan seals. Tigers are not found in Rig Veda. They appear in Atharva Veda. The Goddess Durga is shown riding a lion in temple images, but in miniature paintings she is shown riding a tiger. Shiva is described as draping tiger skin on his body. The Padmashali weavers of South India speak of their founder, Bhavana rishi, who went around giving cloth to all the gods. Shiva, however, wanted animal skin, so his wife took the form of a tigress and asked her husband to offer her hide to him as an indicator of her devotion.

In a Jain story, we are told of how a man left his wife to become a monk. He returned and motivated his son to become a monk too. His wife was so upset that she killed herself and was reborn as a tigress who attacked and killed her own son, but was later pacified by her husband. In Kerala, we learn of how a wicked queen tried to kill her stepson by asking him to fetch her the milk of a tigress. Her stepson returns with a streak of tigresses and gives her the milk. He also kills a female buffalo demon. 

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These stories remind us of three Harappan seals. One showing a bird-like goddess holding two territorial tigers apart, another showing a woman with horns fighting a tiger with horns, and a third showing a man on a tree calling out to a tiger that turns back to look at him. The tiger does not seem to be threatening or threatened by the man on the tree indicating some relationship. We can only wonder if there is a connection between tigers in Jain and Malayali  folklore and the Harappan seals. 

The author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt.pattanaik@mid-day.com