Devdutt Pattanaik tells you elephant stories that you will never forget
Devdutt Pattanaik tells you elephant stories that you will never forgetAcross India and South East Asia are stories where elephants are associated with power and fertility. One queen dreamt of an elephant entering her womb, and ended up becoming mother of the man who would be the Buddha. In his previous lifetime, so say The Jatakas, the Buddha was Vessantara, prince of Sivi, who had in his stables a magical elephant that drew rain clouds wherever it went. And so, when there was a drought in Kalinga, the king requested that Vessantara's elephant be sent there to draw in the rain.
Little wonder then that Indra, king of the gods and god of the sky, is visualised riding an elephant. No ordinary elephant. An elephant with white skin, six trunks and six pairs of tusks called Airavata. Indra rides atop Airavata into battle and hurls his thunderbolt at dark rain-bearing monsoon clouds, visualised as a herd of dark elephants, forcing them to release rain so that the red earth turns green. Amongst Airavata's many titles are names such as 'the wandering cloud' and 'the brother of the sun' leaving no doubt that Indra's white elephant symbolised the white clouds that embellish the sky when the rain clouds have passed.
According to the Kurma Purana, when the gods churned the ocean of milk, Airavata was one of the 14 treasures that emerged. He was the first elephant and was claimed by Indra. Since then elephants have been the symbol of royal power. A medieval text known as Matangalila, the play of elephants, describes Airavata's birth differently. When Brahma broke open the egg of the cosmos, out came flying Garuda, the sun-bird. From the right half of the shell came eight-bull elephants led by Airavata and from the left half came eight cow-elephants led by Abharamu. These elephants paired up and then one by one they went to the four cardinal and the four ordinal directions and became renowned as the Dig-gajas or the elephant guardians of the eight directions. Every time they trembled the earth shook.
These eight elephants, all white, indicating their celestial nature, all came together when the gods churned the ocean of milk to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. They raised their trunk and sprayed her with water.
This was the Abhishekha ritual the pouring of water which is indicative of the rain. With rain comes vegetation and with vegetation comes wealth and with wealth comes power. Thus elephant is associated with fertility, wealth and power. It is the favourite animal of Lakshmi. She rides on it and blesses the kings of the earth.
In Mauryan times only kings were allowed to own elephants. It was proof of their wealth and power. In temples, one often finds images of lions subduing elephants. The lions are symbols of the king. The elephant represents the earth that the king rules over. She is rich, fertile and submissive.
In erotic literature, elephants are symbols of unrestrained raw sexual power. According to the Kama-sutra, an elephant-woman or Hastini is the lustiest of women, crude and vulgar in her carriage. In the Mahabharata, queens such as Draupadi were addressed as Mada-gaja-gamini, women who walk like cow-elephants in rut. The translation does not paint a pretty picture but it basically means a large-hipped voluptuous but very graceful woman. The walk of an elephant and the swing of her hips has inspired Indian poets such as Kalidasa for ages.
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An elephant walks without much sound and it places its feet on earth softly and with great care.
In heat or 'musht', the elephant is unstoppable and extremely dangerous. From here come colloquial words like 'masti' or bawdy fun that the youth indulge in. When an elephant is in the peak of its sexual cycle it oozes fluids from its temples. This is called mada from where comes the word 'madira' meaning wine. In Kerala temples, the most prized elephant was a bull elephant whose trunk, tusk and penis touched the ground. Such an elephant represented absolute virility. Such an elephant was reserved for the chief deity of a shrine.
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In Vishnu Purana, Vishnu rescues the king of elephants, Gajendra, from the jaws of a crocodile. The king of elephants surrounded by cow-elephants is a metaphor for the sensual delights of the world, the crocodile representing the bondage of materialism. Liberation comes when the elephant (material pleasures) raises its trunk and surrenders to the Lord with a lotus offering.
Disclaimer > This column attempts to explain sacred beliefs in the spirit of genuine and respectful curiosity without claiming any authority on the same.
