Again, there are the Lokapâlas, the eight supporters of the world. These eight pairs of elephants support the earth. Indra with Airâvata and Abhramu support the east; Agni with Pundarîka and Kapilâ the south-east; Yama with Vâmana and Pingalâ the south; Sûrya with Kumuda and Anupamâ the south-west; Varuna with Anjana and Anjanavatî the west; Vâyu with Pushpadanta and Subhadantî the north-west; Kuvera on the north with Sarvabhauma, and Soma on the north-east with Supratîka. As usual, there are differences in the enumeration.
From these all the modern elephants are descended. As Abul Fazl writes: “When occasion arises people read incantations in their names and address them in worship. They also think that every elephant in the world is offspring of one of them. Thus, elephants of a white skin and white hairs are related to the first, and elephants with a large head and long ears, of a fierce and bold temper, and eyelids far apart, belong to the second. Such as are good-looking, black, and high in the back, are the offspring of the third. If tall, ungovernable, quick in understanding, short-haired, and with red and black eyes, they come from the fourth. If bright black, with one tusk longer than the other, with a white breast and belly, and long and thick forefeet, from the fifth. If fearful, with prominent veins, a short hump and ears, and a long trunk, from the sixth. If thin-bellied, red-eyed, and with a long trunk, from the seventh. And if of a combination of the preceding seven qualities, from the eighth.”[109]
Through India the reverence for the white elephant of Burma and Siam has arisen. The figure of the elephant appears on some of the pillars of Asoka. There is an elephant gate at Fatehpur Sîkri, one of the King Huvishka at Mathura, and another connected with the dynasty of Kanauj at Dabhâon in the Azamgarh District. Delhi contains the remarkable elephant statues, believed by General Cunningham to have been erected in honour of Jaymal and Patta, the two Râjput heroes who defended the Fort of Chithor against Akbar.[110]
The elephant constantly occurs in folk-lore. In the projection of its forehead it possesses a pearl, known as the Kunjara Mani, or Gaja Mukta, which is invested with magical qualities. In the folk-tales the wooden horse of Troy is represented by an artificial elephant filled with soldiers; other elephants have the power of flying through the air; in other stories, as in one of La Fontaine’s fables, an elephant selects a king by raising him up with his trunk; the elephant Kuvalyapîda is the guardian of a kingdom, and touching an elephant is one of the tests of a woman’s chastity. We have also numerous instances of the metamorphosis of human beings into elephants.[111]
The hair of the elephant’s tail is in high repute as an amulet, and little village children, when an elephant passes, pat the dust where his feet have rested and sing a song, of which one version is—
Hâthi hâthi, bâr dé
Sone kî tarwâr dé—
“Give us a hair, elephant, like a sword of gold.”
In Europe, it may be noted, the hair from the tail of a horse is commonly regarded as a cure for wens.[112]
In the Fatehpur District there is an elephant turned into stone. The famous Jaychand of Kanauj, it is said, as in the Carthage legend, offered to Parâsara Rishi as many villages as an elephant could walk round. It traversed an enormous extent of country, and finally halted at Irâdatnagar, where it was turned into stone, and once a year an enormous fair is held in its honour.[113]