World Elephant

There are a total of eight Ashtadiggajas and Ashtadikkarinis that stand guard over the eight zones:{{Cite web |last=www.wisdomlib.org |date=2019-01-28 |title=Story of Aṣṭadiggajas |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/compilation/puranic-encyclopaedia/d/doc241415.html |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Mani |first=Vettam |title=Puranic encyclopaedia : a comprehensive dictionary with special reference to the epic and Puranic literature |date=1975 |publisher=Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass |others=Robarts - University of Toronto |isbn=978-0-8426-0822-0 |pages=62}}{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Ashtadiggajas |encyclopedia=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |publisher=Penguin UK |last=Dalal |first=Roshen}}

{{Hindu mythology}}

Besides the Ashtadiggajas, there are four elephants who support the earth from the four directions from the netherworld, whose names are given in the Ramayana: Virūpākṣa (east), Mahāpadmasama (south), Saumanasa (west), and Bhadra (north).{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZBqVjGuZxYC&q=elephants&pg=PA430 |title=Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom, p. 430f |date=July 2003 |isbn=9780766171985 |accessdate=2013-04-14 |last1=Williams |first1=Monier |publisher=Kessinger }}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web|url=https://www.valmiki.iitk.ac.in/sloka?field_kanda_tid=1&language=dv&field_sarga_value=40|title=Maharshi Valmiki, Ramayana, Bala Kanda, Sarga 40, Verses 12--22|accessdate=2018-12-14}}

The Matanga Lila associates the Ashtadiggajas as vehicles (vahana) of the Ashtadikpala, eight divine guardians of the directions. It states that the Unborn (Creator) took half shells of the cosmic egg in his hands; the Ashtadiggajas - eight elephants led by Airavata emerged from the shell in the right hand as the sages chanted the saman hymns; while the eight cow-elephants came from the left shell as their consorts. Ashtadiggajas reproduced with their consorts, populating the forests, the mountains with elephants. They aided the gods in defeating the demons in battle.{{Cite book |last=Rajamangalam) |first=Nīlakaṇṭha (of |title=The Elephant-lore of the Hindus: The Elephant-sport (Matanga-lila) of Nilakantha |date=1985 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=978-81-208-0005-2 |pages=47–8 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Das, Chandrima |date=2022 |title=Analytical study of Matangalila and Hastyayurveda in the light of available epigraphic data on elephants in early India |url=https://www.culibrary.ac.in/digital-lib-dev/ebook/pdf_view.php?pdflink=https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/calcutta-university/phd/T13667/08_chapter%204.pdf&cat_type=B |journal=Calcutta University}}

The popular rendition of the World Turtle supporting one or several World Elephants is recorded in 1599 in a letter by Emanual de Veiga.J. Charpentier, 'A Treatise on Hindu Cosmography from the Seventeenth Century (Brit. Mus. MS. Sloane 2748 A).' Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London 3(2) (1924), pp. 317-342, citing John Hay, De rebus Japonicis, Indicis, and Peruanis epistulæ recentiores (Antwerp, 1605, p. 803f.) Wilhelm von Humboldt claimed that the idea of a world-elephant may be due to a confusion, caused by the Sanskrit noun Nāga having the dual meaning of "serpent" and "elephant" (named for its serpent-like trunk), thus representing a corrupted account of the world-serpent. Sadashiv Ambadas Dange, Glimpses of purāṇic myth and culture (1987), p. 70.{{cite web|url=http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1004&L=indology&D=1&O=D&F=PP&P=2344 |title=INDOLOGY archives - April 2010 (#17) |publisher=Listserv.liv.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2013-04-14}}{{cite web|url=http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1004&L=indology&D=1&O=D&F=PP&P=4475 |title=INDOLOGY archives - April 2010 (#33) |publisher=Listserv.liv.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2013-04-14}}

{{poemquote|

Love and Death

On the wondrous dais rose a throne,

And he its pedestal whose lotus hood

With ominous beauty crowns his horrible

Sleek folds, great Mahapudma; high displayed

He bears the throne of Death. There sat supreme

With those compassionate and lethal eyes,

Who many names, who many natures holds;

Yama, the strong pure Hades sad and subtle,

Dharma, who keeps the laws of old untouched.{{cite web|url=http://sacred-texts.com/hin/lad/lad01.htm |title=Love and Death: Love and Death |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |date= |accessdate=2013-04-14}}}}Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable lists Maha-pudma and Chukwa are names from a "popular rendition of a Hindu myth in which the tortoise Chukwa supports the elephant Maha-pudma, which in turn supports the world".Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 15th ed., revised by Adrian Room, HarperCollins (1995), p. 1087.

also 14th ed. (1989).

The spelling Mahapudma originates as a misprint of Mahapadma in Sri Aurobindo's 1921 retelling of a story of the Mahabharata.

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, the Disc sits atop the shoulders of four elephants that stand on top of a giant turtle. There is a legendary fifth elephant that plummeted into the ground and left a legacy of valuable minable materials.

• Dikpalas
• Gaja
• World Turtle

{{reflist}}

Elephant

Category:Legendary creatures in Hindu mythology

Category:Mythological elephants

Category:Elephants in Hinduism