Animal Lore | The Gharial

Gharial

For centuries, the Gharial has glided through the rivers of the Subcontinent. It gets its name from the word "ghara", an earthen pot. It refers to the snout of an adult male, which looks like a clay pitcher.

Celebrated as a symbol of fertility, wisdom, and protection, the gharial is featured in stories dating back to the Indus Valley Civilisation and remains a part of Hindu and Buddhist traditions.

In the art and seals of the Indus Valley Civilisation, the gharial is often portrayed as a “horned” creature. The gharial appears at the centre of complex scenes surrounded by animals like tigers, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinoceroses.

One famous example is the “Proto-Śiva” or “Pashupati” seal (M-304) from Mohenjo-daro, where a deity wearing buffalo horns sits cross-legged in a yogic posture, flanked by various animals. The gharial, along with fish, is shown above, floating in the sky, suggesting divine status and perhaps association with water gods.

In another set of seals and mass-produced moulds, the gharial itself becomes the horned “Master of Animals.”

It wears impressive buffalo or bison horns and is depicted as the ruler among creatures of land and water. Sometimes, a shaman figure appears sitting in a tree, facing the horned gharial, while a tiger below turns its head backwards to look up, forming a symbolic link between sky (the gharial deity), earth (the tiger), and humanity (the shaman).

In some depictions, the gharial couples with a female figure associated with tigers, hinting at a myth of creation, fertility, and the union of opposing forces—sky and earth, water and land.

These images together suggest that in the beliefs of the Indus people, the gharial was far more than a river reptile: it was a divine protector, a bringer of life and fertility, and a ruler over both wild animals and perhaps even the sky itself.

In Hindu tradition, it is also famously known as the vahana, or sacred steed, of Goddess Ganga, embodying the nurturing and purifying spirit of flowing water.

In Pakistan, Gharials once thrived in our rivers. Today, they are sadly considered locally extinct, though occasional sightings spark hope for their return. Their story reminds us that when rivers run healthy and life within them flourishes, nearby communities, too, thrive.

Protecting the gharial isn’t just about saving a single species - it’s about restoring the ancient bond between people, rivers, and the wildlife that depend on each other.

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Sources: 

WWF Pakistan

Gharial God and Tigeer Goddess in the Indus Valley, Naga Gansesan

Deciphering the Indus script, A. Parpola