vahana is a beautiful word whose english translation is vehicle. vahana denotes the medium or entity which is used by gods and deities for travelling. often the vahanas helps the god in doing various tasks. it could be a fight or as messenger or do any other important divine duty. these vahana are powerful beings.
list of vahana of gods, deities and demigods:
1. mouse, shrew, rat – lord ganesha. in some stories and statues, ganesha is shown riding on peacock also. here mouse represents the greed and desires and ganesha is removal of them. mouse also destroys crops and thus destroys prosperity of farmers and again ganesha is controlling the mouse. in most ganesha statue, there will be a mouse statue (musak raj) outside the temple. as per popular belief, you can tell your desires in musak raj (mouse) left ear and he will pass it to lord ganesha.
2. peacock – kartikeya (son of lord shiva and ma parvati). kartikeya is also know by the name skanda, murugan and subrahmany. he is the hindu god of war and commander in chief of devas army.
3. tiger – durga or parvati ma.
4. lion – ma durga or parvati me, rahu (demon or a shadow planet in vedic astrology), ma jagaddhatri, shera wali maa. in durga saptashati recital, you can read how lion fought along ma durga to kill the demons.
5. bull – lord shiva rides on nandi bull. nandi is one of the foremost gana (follower) of shiva.
6. garuda – vishnu. lord rama is an incarnation of vishnu. in ramayana, jatayu (garuda) fought with demon kind ravana to save ma sita (incarnation of laxmi ma, wife of vishnu). garuda also removed the nagapasha (weapon which cause bondage by nagas/snakes) from laxmana. when he was hit by meghnada arrow during war.
7. dog – bhairava (one of the ferocious form of lord shiva)
8. elephant – indra and bṛhaspati. the king of elephants named ‘airavata’ is the vehicle of hindu god indra who is god of rain. bṛhaspati is the guru of gods. in vedic astrology, bṛhaspati is represented as planet jupiter who gives wealth, wisdom and moksha.
9. donkey – shitala ma. she is goddess of smallpox, sores, ghouls, pustules and diseases.
10. owl – lakshmi ma. she is wife of lord vishnu and brings prosperity and wealth in the house. seeing owl is considered auspicious.
11. crow – sani dev or lord saturn. sani is the son of lord surya (sun) and he gives justice as per your karma. no body is saved/exempted from his justice. in vedic astrology, planet saturn represents the sani dev.