Thread by @blog_supplement

A comment on this newly discovered Kashmirian image: While the deity is being called durgA due to the lions, the deity should be more correctly understood as shrI=lakShmI, with the lions merely emphasizing her transfunctional role.

For comparison see earlier image of parallel iconography:

Also see below for other parallel Kashmirian images

Image # 1 currently at New York

image #2 probably next oldest after the Hunnic image

image #3 quite close to the recently found image with two lions

image #4; again 2 lions similar.

Now note the following: 1) She has a cornucopia, a distinctive feature in northern representations of shrI where she is equated in iconography with her cognates, the Roman Fortuna & Iranian Ardoksho who are both shown with the same. Note this syncretic Gandharan lakShmI-Ardoksho

Note the same and iconographic parallels in this Roman Pompeiian Fortuna

Note the same iconography of the central Celtic homolog goddess from the Lyons triad of Matronae.

This by itself will clinch her identity as lakShmI. However, there is more: 2. Note the feet of the chipped off elephants are still there & closely parallel the other Kashmirian icons. The elephants with shrI go back to the veda & her earliest pan-Indian iconography e.g. see

earliest Lankan coins from AnurAdhapura showing spread from gandhara to lankA of this iconic
This is another clincher that it is lakShmI; 3. finally, the Kashmirian icons frequently show the wealth guardians, similar to those with Fortuna who may guard

pots of gold coins. You can see them flanking the lions in the latest find. Thus, what has been found is another classic example of a Kashmirian lakShmI and not durgA. ity alam vistAreNa |

4. One more final point, the flower in the other hand from the cornucopia is also diagnostic of shrI from some of the earliest representations of her found to date-- an iconic feature again with vedic precedence.

Also note the parallelism to between the water-deities shown with the Pompeiian Fortuna and a comparable deity found associated with shrI in shu~Nga age image: