A Hindu organization has sued an Indian zoo after it named a lioness after the Hindu goddess Sita, saying the gesture was blasphemy and an attack on the faith of most residents of the Asian country, Reuters reported.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), better known outside India as the World Hindu Council, wants judges to force the zoo’s administrators to change the animal’s name. The VHP also objected to the zoo’s intention to keep a lioness in the same place as a lion named Akbar – the name of a famous 16th-century Mughal leader.

The two animals are currently in the North Bengal Wildlife Park as part of an exchange program between zoos in India.

The VHP, known for its ties to the nationalist party led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says the names for the lions were chosen by the West Bengal regional government, which is run by an Indian opposition political group.

In a press release, the Hindu organization said it had received “phone calls and complaints” from “different parts of the country” about the names of the two animals.

Hindu nationalists say they are “deeply hurt” by the name given to the lioness

In a complaint filed in court, VHP secretary Lakshman Bansal claims that the organization watched with “deep pain” as the lioness was named Sita. Bansal noted that the name belongs to the wife of the god Rama, who is revered by many Hindus as the supreme god in the pantheon of that religion, and that the goddess is also revered by believers around the world.

“Such an act is blasphemous and a direct attack on the religious faith of all Hindus,” the complaint further states.

VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal threatened protests if officials refused to change the animals’ names and separate them.

“Sita and Akbar cannot live together,” he said.

The anger stems from the fact that Akbar was a Mughal emperor who consolidated Muslim rule over much of the Indian subcontinent, a historical period that Hindu nationalists consider the darkest in their religion’s history.

About 80% of the population of India, the world’s most populous country, is Hindu. But the country is also home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party pursues nationalist policies that it says are only returning India to its ancient roots, a period that Hindu nationalists see as the country’s golden age.