Legendary Creatures: Aṣṭadiggajas
The Aṣṭadiggajas (Sanskrit अष्टदिग्गज, literally 'eight elephants of the quarters') are eight elephants from Hindu cosmology that guard the eight zones of the universe. They have female elephant companions called the Ashtadikkarinis.
By Ms Sarah Welch - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109166780
Each pair of elephant guards a particular direction with one of the deva and are named in the Ramayana. They are Airāvata and Abhramu (male and female) in the east, Puṇḍarīka and Kapilā in the south-east, Vāmana and Piṅgalā in the south, Kumuda and Anupamā in the south-west, Añjana and Tāmrakarṇī in the west, Puṣpadanta and Śubhradantī in the north-west, Sārvabhauma and Aṅganā in the north, and Supratīka and Añjanāvatī in the north-east. There are also four elephants that support the earth, Virūpākṣa in the east, Mahāpadmasama in the south, Saumanasa in the west, and Bhadra in the north. In the Matanga Lila, a Sanskrit book dealing with elephants, they are vehicles of the Aṣṭa-Dikpāla (अष्ट-दिक्पाल), who guard the ten directions, which include zenith and nadir.
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=308632
Airāvata is the king of the elephants and serves Indra. He is described as having four tusks, seven trunks, and being white. He is said to either be born to Iravati (the daughter of Kadru or Bhadramada and Kashyapa, associated with the Iravati [Ravi] river) or from the churning of the ocean of milk (the cosmic ocean where the elixir of life was created). Airāvata guards Svara, the home of the devas, especially Indra's palace in his quarter and was the cause of the churning of the ocean of milk. The elephants are connected to water and clouds, which is connected to Indra defeating Vritra, the personification of drought.
In Thailand, Airāvata is known as Erāvana (เอราวัณ) and is the symbol of Bangkok. In the Thai depictions, he has either three or thirty-three heads (mostly three) often with more than two tusks each head.
The Aṣṭadiggajas were born from the right hand side of the cosmic egg when the Unborn (the creator) broke it open. The Ashtadikkarinis were born from the left hand side. Together, they helped defeat the demons in battle with the gods.
By Unknown author - "How the Earth was Regarded in Old times", The Popular Science Monthly, Volume 10, part dated March 1877, pp. 542-53, page 544, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10904389
The world elephants stand on the back of the World Turtle (Akūpāra अकूपार) with Jñānarāja (the 'king of knowlege', a 16th century CE astronomer and mathematician), who wrote in Siddhantasundara (which means 'noble treatise') and said 'A vulture, whichever has only little strength, rests in the sky holding a snake in its beak for a prahara [three hours]. Why can [the deity] in the form of a tortoise, who possesses an inconceivable potency, not hold the Earth in the sky for a kalpa [billions of years]?'
