Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In 326 BC after Alexander the Great's victory over King Porus of India, the captured war elephants became a symbol of imperial power, being used as an emblem of the Seleucid Diadoch empire. In about the year 800 AD, an elephant called Abul-Abbas was brought from Baghdad to Charlemagne 's residence in Aachen as a symbol of the beginning of the ...
Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) [65] [66] 22 October 2010 [67] Indian elephant is the largest terrestrial mammal in India and a cultural symbol throughout its range, appearing in various religious traditions and mythologies. [68] [69] It is native to mainland Asia with nearly three-fourth of the population found in India.
The Indian elephant is a cultural symbol throughout its range and appears in various religious traditions and mythologies. The elephants are treated positively and is revered as a form of Lord Ganesha in Hinduism. It has been designated the national heritage animal in India and is the national animal of Thailand and Laos.
He is the "king of elephants" also serves as the main vehicle for the deity Indra. [1] It is also called 'abhra-Matanga', meaning "elephant of the clouds"; 'Naga-malla', meaning "the fighting elephant"; and 'Arkasodara', meaning "brother of the sun". [2] 'Abhramu' is the elephant wife of Airavata. Airavata is also the third son of Iravati.
Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. [53] Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. [54] One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. [55]
The Hindu epic Mahabharata describes two more elephants by the same name – a mythical elephant that was an incarnation of a sage, and the one that belonged to Bhagadatta, the king of Pragjyotisha. Vinayaki is an elephant-headed Hindu goddess, a Matrika. The goddess is generally associated with the elephant-headed god of wisdom, Ganesha.
The elephants in this imagery possess significant symbolic meaning. [1] The elephants are often interpreted as symbols of fertilising rains, drawing from an ancient Hindu belief that associates them with clouds. Mythological narratives suggest that the original elephants had wings and traversed the skies, bestowing rain upon the earth.
In Ancient India, a number of treatises were written about caring and management of elephants, which included the following: Palakapya's Hastyayurveda dealing with the management of good health of elephants. Matangalila by Nilakantha; Sculpture of Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity