Talk:World Elephant

Untitled
this was rather difficult to figure out, as the Maha-pudma misprint has become rather widespread. It turns out that a World Turtle does exist in classical Hindu literature, under the name of Kurma or Kurmaraja, and has a pedigree reaching to the ShPB. There is also a Hindu World Serpent, Naga Shesha (or Padoha?), although rather less prominent than Kurma. As for the world-elephant, there are many references to the effect of "sometimes also an elephant", but without specification. This must be a late (non-classical, medieval) development. The suspicion that the 'world-elephant' is due to a confusion of the term naga appears to originate with Wilhelm von Humboldt. But we are lacking specific references on where such a world-elephant narrative is actually attested. Perhaps it is purely oral folklore current in 19th century India, without any literary precedent? --dab (𒁳) 13:52, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Monier-Williams, IW appears to be the source. There are sixteen, not four elephants, eight male and eight female. MW's source is the Amara-kosha. --dab (𒁳) 14:07, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

The statement "However, this concept is not found anywhere in the Puranas or the Epics" seems to be incorrect. There are elephants supporting the earth mentioned in the Ramayana. See, for example, http://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga40/bala_5F40_frame.htm (verse 13). Gjnyasa (talk) 07:21, 14 December 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 3 October 2022

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Procedural close. Combining with Talk:Ashtadiggajas for multi-page move discussion. (closed by non-admin page mover) – robertsky (talk) 11:47, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

World Elephant → Astadiggajas – This article is about the eight elephants of Hindu cosmology, not the western motif of the World Elephant. Chronikhiles (talk) 09:27, 3 October 2022 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
 * Conditional oppose. This request should have been merged with Talk:Ashtadiggajas and converted to a multi-page move. Unless these two requests are bundled, neither request makes sense. Steel1943  (talk) 15:14, 10 October 2022 (UTC)

Blanking and redirect
Requesting @User:Ratnahastin to discuss on the talk or AfD for blanking and redirect of a stable article. The Astadiggajas is a notable concept, also discussed in Cultural depictions of elephants. Redtigerxyz Talk 17:12, 29 June 2024 (UTC)