The myth that Lion is the Kind of beast is in many culture, Greek, Roman, African, etc.

But from the animal Habitat point of view and strength point of view Tiger is the most appropriate animal.

You are right that universally lion is the mount for Durga. From Saptami-Dashmi it is puja anf the religious and festivity goes on from early morning to late at night. In Est India, and people of east India everywhere including USA celebrate Durga Puja. They celebrate Dushara and culminate in Ram lila. It is also an intriguing point as to why different areas celebrate this Navaratri for the uncontrollable Goddess (Chandi) in different navaratris why not in the same ritu? But hinduism being a cocktail of anything and everything, anything goes as most superlative worship. The essentiality of animal sacrifice to please Chandi also reveals its tribal, non-brahminical origin imo. Since the vedas did not accept the female principle as the most supreme till such adsorption of the Tantric Sakti cult (whereafter many new inventions like durga sooktam etc., were manufactured to show that vedic assent is present for the Saktic tantrism), it is not correct to say that this Sakti worship, Navaratri pooja etc., are in tune with original vedic beliefs and hence these are unbrahminical. The Devi Mahatmyam involving a dispossessed king, a betrayed merchant and a rebel sort of sage, tries to unify the vedic beliefs with this newfound Sakti cult. In the south this female energy might have had continuity with the women oracles referred to in Sangam literature who used to predict the future when they went into a trance state. A few Upasakas do it at home also.Дevi Mahatmyam or Chandi is essentially a Tantrik text, incorporated into Markandeya Purana to subserve the interests of Saktism being absorbed by the mainstream Hinduism which had, at one point of time (c, 400-600 A.D.) been resurrecting ever since the Sunga empire breathed new life into it.ДЄlmost all the villages in India had their own deities and the female, uncontrolled energy as an object of worship was prominent among those. The homam is done either with the recitation of Devi Mahatmyam and Navakshari mantra (more common) or Moola mantra homam (only recitation of Navakshari). There are variations like Dasa Chandi and Sahashra Chandi. Most of the homams or havan are conducted by collecting donations from the public. But now though there is no old temple for Chandi, people perform Chandi Homam at the drop of a hat. So I think that MAA CHANDI must have been well known in Tamil Nadu for the term to come into the language. This describes the quality of MAA CHANDI. The term Chandi is used in Tamil to mean 'irrepressible '. She also used epithets like Kaali and Bhadra Kali. The first time I heard the epithet was when my mother called my rebellious sister Chandi. MAA CHANDI in my opinion was worshipped extensively long time back in Tamil Nadu. Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Mahaa Lakshmi temple in Mumbai (Bombay) are representatives of this. But in most of the places there are three Murthis or Pindas representing MAHAA KALI, MAHAA LAKSHMI, and MAHAA SARASWATHI. All over North India you get photographs, calendars and Yantras with this Mantra inscribed. During my travels all over India, I have found that this is the best-known mantra. This mantra is also known as Navakshari or Chandi Navakshari as it contains nine syllables. In all the Devi Mahaatmyam books the mantra 'Nava Avarna Mantra' is given and the procedure for reciting the Mantra. Neither the Vedas nor the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana refer to MAA by this name. In light of this primacy of this designation of the Goddess, it is striking that the word Chandika hasvirtually no earlier history in Sanskrit. Again this epithetis not used in the first Charithra dealing with Madhu Kaitabha. Chandika is a derivative from the adjective Chandi- 'fierce, passionate'.This epithet is applied to the Goddess a total of twenty-nine times (maximum for any epithet) in the Devi Mahatmyam. Petersburg dictionary as 'the violent and impetuous one'. Chandi or Chandika has been defined by the St. MAA CHANDI is the central figure in the epic. Facets of the bible of the Sakthas.Дevi Mahatmyam is also called Durga Sapthasathi. I will be posting on Devi Mahatmyam on all the nine days. The following post was written 10 years back. On this occasion, I thought I should post on Devi Mahatmyam.

Devi mahatmyam slokas in tamil lyrics