It has been interpreted as a sculpture created by a foreign artist that shows Herakles strangling the Nemaean lion.

[1] However, the male is wearing lion's skin, the legs of which are tied around his neck, which has been interpreted as proof that the foreign artist lacked full knowledge of the Greek mythology, because he is shown already wearing the skin of the lion he is fighting.

[2][3] The man fighting the lion in the scene is very generally considered as being Herakles, but some authors have suggested that an Indian sculptor, influenced by western art, could have meant to represent Krishna for example.

[2] On its discovery, Cunningham wrote that the statue must be of Herakles and the Nemaean lion, that there is high probability that this was sculptured by some foreign artist for the use of the Greek resident of Mathura.

[6][7][8] According to James Harle, there is "no Gandharan sculpture whose source can be so directly traced" to Greece as the Mathura Herakles.