Elephants represent sensuality as well as strength across Asia
Elephants represent sensuality as well as strength across Asia
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SHE dreamt of an elephant entering her womb, and the next day the queen declared she was pregnant. The child grew up to become the Buddha. In his previous lifetime, so says 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 and draw in the rain.
Stories such as these clearly indicate that in India, and in South-East Asia, in general, elephants are associated with rain and fertility. In Puri, Orissa, at the height of summer, the presiding deity, Jagannath, is bedecked with a mask of an elephant in the hope that it will serve as a talisman and bring in monsoons sooner.
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.
Eight elephants, from the cardinal and ordinal directions came together to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, when she rose from the ocean of milk. 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 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 (sexual power) raises its trunk and offers a lotus (devotion) to the Lord.
In Japan, the elephant-headed deity, Kangiten, is worshipped as a central object of devotion. Kangiten symbolises conjugal affection, and is thus prayed to by couples hoping for children. Statues of this deity are relatively rare in Japan most are kept hidden from public view and used in secretive rituals. Kangiten statues in Japan clearly reflect the deity's Hindu origins, for in India the deity is known as the elephant-headed Ganesha. In Japan, Kangiten is typically depicted with an elephant's head and human body, or as a pair of two-armed, elephant-headed deities in embrace.
If elephants represent wealth and power and material grandeur, then they should not matter to ascetics. And they don't. Shiva, the supreme ascetic, is called Gajantaka, he who killed an elephant, flayed it alive and used its thick skin, the Gaja-charma, as a cloak. In many scriptures, the elephant is described as a demon, Gajasura, who terrorises the world, a metaphor for the dangers of sensual pursuits undoubtedly. Elephant's skin cannot be tanned easily. Thus it rots. Shiva, by wearing it, reinforces his role as one who holds all things material in disdain.
In Tibetian Buddhist art one often comes across images of Mahakala standing upon an elephant-headed demon.
Scholars believe this is Gajasura, the demon of materialism. Others say the elephant headed demon represents proto-Ganesha for long before Ganesha became the much loved god who removes obstacles he was a much feared god who created obstacles. This tradition still exists in remote Tibet where the elephant-headed deity is feared and needs to be trampled by the lord of time, Mahakala.
But as Hinduism evolved in India, the elephant-headed demon destroyed by time became the elephant-headed son created by Shiva. Why did Shiva use an elephant's head to resurrect the son autonomously created by his consort, the goddess Shakti? The instruction given to his attendants was: "Go north and fetch the head of the first living thing you come across." North is the direction of growth in Vaastu and according to Brahmavaivarta Purana, the creature first seen by Shiva's attendants was the white Airavata, the mount of Indra. Clearly, the killer of elephants is creating his son using the ultimate symbol of material splendor.u00a0 In creating the elephant-headed Ganesha, Shiva stops being the world-renouncing hermit and transforms into Shankara, the world-affirming householder. Thus the elephant brings with it life and growth, wherever it goes.u00a0
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Disclaimer > This column attempts to explain sacred beliefs in the spirit of genuine and respectful curiosity without claiming any authority on the same.
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