In ancient India, lions were among various carnivores recognized as guhasaya (animals that sleep in caves). In South Asian folklore, epic tales, religious texts, heroic court histories, and the occasional account by a foreign visitor—not to speak of the rich array of visual arts from Mauryan seals to Mughal paintings—lions and other wild animals densely populated woodlands, grasslands, and the popular imagination. Drawing on such sources and his own extensive field research in Gujarat, Divyabhanusinh traces the history and distribution of the Asiatic lion, panthera leo persica. He recounts the struggle of a devoted few, drawn both from the erstwhile nawabs and princes of the Saurashtran states of western India and nomadic herders such as the Maldharis, to preserve a dwindling habitat and conserve the rare species for posterity in its last refuge of Gir in Junagadh.

Starting with the extant knowledge of and relations with lions in classical Europe...

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