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{{short description|Eight legendary elephants of Hinduism}}
[[File:PSM V10 D562 The hindoo earth.jpg|thumb|An 1877 American drawing of the world supported on the backs of four elephants, themselves resting on the back of a turtle.|260x260px]]
The '''Ashtadiggajas''' ({{Lang-sa|अष्टदिग्गज|lit=eight elephants of the quarters|translit=Aṣṭadiggajas}}) is a group of eight legendary elephants that appear in [[Hindu cosmology]], serving as the guardians of the eight zones of the universe.<ref>{{Cite web |last=www.wisdomlib.org |date=2018-05-14 |title=Diggaja, Dish-gaja: 14 definitions |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/diggaja |access-date=2022-10-03 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |language=en}}</ref> There are also eight female elephants that stand beside the Ashtadiggajas, referred to as the '''Ashtadikkarinis'''.

== List ==
There are a total of eight Ashtadiggajas and Ashtadikkarinis that stand guard over the eight zones:<ref>{{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}}</ref>
{{Hindu mythology}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Direction
!Male
!Female
|-
|East
|[[Airavata|Airāvata]]
|Abhramu
|-
|South-east
|Puṇḍarīka
|Kapilā
|-
|South
|Vāmana
|Piṅgalā
|-
|South-west
|Kumuda
|Anupamā
|-
|West
|Añjana
|Tāmrakarṇī
|-
|North-west
|Puṣpadanta
|Śubhradantī
|-
|North
|Sārvabhauma
|Aṅganā
|-
|North-east
|Supratīka
|Añjanāvatī
|}

== Literature ==
Besides the Ashtadiggajas, there are four elephants who support the earth from the four directions from the [[Patala|netherworld]], whose names are given in the [[Ramayana]]: Virūpākṣa (east), Mahāpadmasama (south), Saumanasa (west), and Bhadra (north).<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
The popular rendition of the [[World Turtle]] supporting one or several World Elephants is recorded in 1599 in a letter by Emanual de Veiga.<ref>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.) </ref> [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]] claimed, without any proof, 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.<ref> Sadashiv Ambadas Dange, Glimpses of purāṇic myth and culture (1987), p. 70.</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

{{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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>}}[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]] lists ''Maha-pudma and [[World-Tortoise (Hindu)|Chukwa]]'' are names from a "popular rendition of a [[Hindu mythology|Hindu myth]] in which the tortoise Chukwa supports the elephant Maha-pudma, which in turn supports the world".<ref>[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]], 15th ed., revised by Adrian Room, HarperCollins (1995), p. 1087.
also 14th ed. (1989).
</ref> The spelling ''Mahapudma'' originates as a misprint of ''Mahapadma'' in [[Sri Aurobindo]]'s 1921 retelling of a story of the [[Mahabharata]].

==See also==
*[[Guardians of the directions|Dikpalas]]
* [[Gaja]]
* [[World Turtle]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:World-bearing animals|Elephant]]
[[Category:Hindu legendary creatures]]
[[Category:Mythological elephants]]
[[Category:Elephants in Hinduism]]

World Elephant - Revision history

Ajay Kumar: Created a new article