Religion, mythology and philosophy
The
Asian elephant appears in various
religious traditions and mythologies. They are treated positively and are sometimes revered as deities, often symbolising strength and wisdom. Similarly, the
African elephant is seen as the wise chief who impartially settles disputes among the forest creatures in African fables,
[2] and the
Ashanti tradition holds that they are human chiefs from the past.
[3]
The earth is supported and guarded by mythical
World Elephants at the compass points of the
cardinal directions, according to the
Hindu cosmology of
ancient India. The classical
Sanskrit literature also attributes earthquakes to the shaking of their bodies when they tire. Wisdom is represented by the elephant in the form of the deity
Ganesh, one of the most popular gods in the
Hindu religion's
pantheon. Sometimes known as Ganesha, this deity is very distinctive in having a human form with the head of an elephant. This was put on after the human head was either was cut off or burned, depending on the version of the story from various Hindu sources. Lord Ganesha's birthday (rebirth) is celebrated as the Hindu festival known as
Ganesha Chaturthi.
[4] In
Japanese Buddhism, their adaptation of Ganesha is known as
Kangiten("Deva of Bliss"), often represented as an elephant-headed male and female pair shown in a standing embrace to represent
unity of opposites.
[5]
In
Hindu iconography, many
devas are associated with a mount or vehicle known as a
vāhana. In addition to providing a means of transport, they symbolically represent a divine attribute. The elephant
vāhana represents wisdom, divine knowledge and royal power; it is associated with
Lakshmi,
Brihaspati,
Shachi and
Indra.
Indra was said to ride on a flying
white elephant named
Airavata, who was made the King of all elephants by Lord Indra. A white elephant is rare and given special significance. It is often considered sacred and symbolises royalty in Thailand and Burma, where it is also considered a symbol of good luck. In
Buddhist iconography, the elephant is associated with
Queen Māyā of Sakya, the mother of
Gautama Buddha. She had a vivid dream foretelling her pregnancy in which a white elephant featured prominently.
[6] To the royal sages, the white elephant signifies royal majesty and authority; they interpreted the dream as meaning that her child was destined for greatness as a universal monarch or a
buddha.
[7]
In the version of the
Chinese zodiac used in
Northern Thailand, the last year in the 12-year cycle – called "Year of the
Pig" in China – is known instead as "Year of the Elephant", reflecting the importance of elephants in Thai culture.
In Islamic tradition, the year 570 is when the Prophet
Muhammad was born and is known as the
Year of the Elephant.
[9] In that year,
Abraha, ruler of
Yemen tried to conquer
Mecca and demolish the
Kaaba, reportedly in retaliation for the previous Meccan defilement of a cathedral Abraha had constructed in
Sana'a.
[10] However, his plan was foiled when his white elephant named Mahmud refused to cross the boundary of Mecca. The elephant, who led Abraha's forty thousand men, could not be persuaded with reason or even with violence, which was regarded as a crucial omen by Abraha's soldiers. This is generally related in the five
verses of the
chapter titled '
The Elephant'
[b] in the
Quran.
[11]
The unfamiliarity with the exotic beast has also made elephants a subject of widely different interpretations thus giving rise to mythological creatures. The story of the
blind men and an elephant was written to show how reality may be viewed from differing perspectives. The source of this
parable is unknown, but it appears to have originated in India. It has been attributed to
Buddhists,
Hindus,
Jainists, and
Sufis, and was also used by
Discordians. The scattered skulls of prehistoric
pygmy elephants on the islands of
Crete and
Sicily may have formed the basis of belief in existence of
cyclopes,
[c] the one-eyed
giants featured in
Homer's
Odyssey (c. 800~600 BC). As early as the 1370s, scholars had noted that the skulls feature a large
nasal cavity at the front that could be mistaken for a singular eye socket;
[13] and the skulls, twice the size of a human's, looked as if they could belong to giant humanoids.
[13][14] It is also suggested that the
Behemoth described in the
Book of Job may be the elephant due to its grazing habits and preference to rivers.
[15]
In Art
PrehistoricFrom Stone age
rock-art to Modern age
street-art, the elephant has remained a popular subject for artists.
Modern
Politics and secular society
The elephant is also depicted by various political groups and in secular society.
In Asia
Asian cultures admire the high intelligence and good memory of Asian elephants. As such, they symbolise wisdom
[25] and royal power. They are used as a representative of various political parties such as
United National Party of
Sri Lanka and
Bahujan Samaj Party of
India. The
Elephants of Kerala are an integral part of the daily life in
Kerala,
South India.
[26] These
Indian elephants are loved, revered, groomed and given a prestigious place in the state's culture.
[27] There they are often referred to as the 'sons of the
sahya.' The elephant is the state animal of Kerala and is featured on the emblem of the
Government of Kerala. The elephant is also on the flag of the
Kingdom of Laos with three elephants visible, supporting an umbrella (another symbol of royal power) until it became a republic in 1975. Other Southeast Asian realms have also displayed one or more white elephants.
The elephant can also be found in games. In
shatranj, the Medieval game from which
Chess developed, the piece corresponding to the modern
bishop was known as
Pil or Alfil("Elephant"; from Persian and Arabic,
[f] respectively).
[28] In the Indian
chaturanga game the piece is also called "Elephant" (
Gaja). The same is true in
Chinese chess[g] which has an elephant piece ("Xiàng", 象); the elephant serves as a defensive piece, being the only one that may not cross the river dividing the game board. In the Japanese
shogi version, the piece was known as the "
Drunken Elephant"; however, it was dropped by order of the
Emperor Go-Nara and no longer appears in the version played in contemporary Japan. Even with modern Chess, the word for the
bishop is still
Alfil in Spanish,
Alfiere in Italian,
Feel in Persian, and "Elephant" (Слон) in Russian. All of these games originally simulated a kind of battlefield, thus this piece represented a
war elephant. In the present-day canonical
Staunton chess set, the piece's deep groove, which originally represented the elephant's tusks, is now regarded as representing a bishop's (or abbot's)
mitre.
The elephant also lends its name to some landmarks in Asia.
Elephanta Island (also called "Gharapuri Island") in
Mumbai Harbour was given this name by 17th century
Portuguese explorers who saw a monolithic basalt sculpture of an elephant near the entrance to what became known as the
Elephanta Caves. The Portuguese attempted to take it home with them but ended up dropping it into the sea because their chains were not strong enough. Later, the British moved this elephant to the Victoria and Albert Museum (now
Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum) in
Mumbai.
[30]
In Europe
Collar of the Danish Order of the Elephant.
One of the elephants shot for its
meat at Paris in December 1870.
The killing and eating of the elephants
Castor and Pollux from the
Botanical gardens during the 1870
Siege of Paris received considerable attention at the time. This became emblematic of the hardships and degradation caused by siege and war, especially since the two elephants were previously very popular with the Parisian public. The city of
Catania, Sicily has an immemorial connection with the elephant. The local sorcerer
Heliodorus, was credited with either riding a magic elephant or transforming himself into this animal. Under Medieval Arab rule Catania was known as
Medinat-Al-Fil or
Balad-Al-Fil (City/State of the Elephant). The symbol of the city is the
Fontana dell'Elefante (Fountain of the Elephant) assembled in its present form in 1736 by
Giovanni Battista Vaccarini.
In America
The elephant as the symbol for the
Republican Party of the United States originated in an 1874 political cartoon of an Asian elephant by
Thomas Nast in
Harper's Weekly. This cartoon, titled "Third Term Panic", is a parody of
Aesop's fable,
[i] "
The Ass in the Lion's Skin". It depicts an elephant (labelled
The Republican Vote) running toward a
chasm of chaos; frightening a
jackass[j] in a lion's skin (labelled
Caesarism) which scatters animals representing various interests. Although Nast used the elephant seven more times to represent the "Republican Vote", he did not use it to represent the
Republican Party until March 1884 in "The Sacred Elephant".
[39]
In Africa
Many African cultures revere the African Elephant as a symbol of strength and power.
[40][41] It is also praised for its size, longevity, stamina, mental faculties, cooperative spirit, and loyalty.
[42] South Africa, uses elephant tusks in their
coat of arms to represent wisdom, strength, moderation and eternity.
[43] The elephant is symbolically important to the nation of
Ivory Coast (
Côte d'Ivoire); the
Coat of arms of Ivory Coast features an elephant head
escutcheon as its focal point.
Popular culture
The elephant has entered into popular culture through various
idiomatic expressions and
adages.
The phrase "Elephants never forget" refers to the belief that elephants have excellent memories. The variation "Women and elephants never forget an injury" originates from the 1904 book
Reginald on Besetting Sins by British writer Hector Hugh Munro, better known as
Saki.
[44][45]-
- Remarkable recall power, researchers believe, is a big part of how elephants survive. Matriarch elephants, in particular, hold a store of social knowledge that their families can scarcely do without, according to research conducted on elephants at Amboseli National Park in Kenya.[46]
Literature
Elephants can also represent the hugeness and wildness of the imagination, as in
Ursula Dubosarsky's 2012 children's book,
Too Many Elephants in This House,
[56] which also plays with the notion of the
elephant in the room.
[57] An imaginary elephant can (perhaps) become real, as with the elusive
Heffalump. Although never specified as an elephant in
A. A. Milne's
Winnie the Pooh stories, a heffalump physically resembles an elephant; and
E. H. Shepard's illustration shows an Indian elephant. "
Heffalump" has since been defined as "a child's term for an elephant."
[58]
Sports
The Elephant is used as a mascot or logo for various sports groups.
Circus showman
P. T. Barnum donated the stuffed hide of
Jumbo the elephant to
Tufts University's in 1885, where Jumbo soon became the mascot for their sports teams. However, all that remains of Jumbo are some ashes stored in a peanut butter jar and a piece of his tail following a fire in 1975. "Jumbo's spirit lives on" in the peanut butter jar which is ceremoniously passed on to successive Athletic Directors.
[59]
The mascot for the
Oakland Athletics (A's) baseball team is based on the figurative white elephant. The story of picking the mascot began when
New York Giants' manager
John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer
Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands"; manager
Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot.
[m] The A's are sometimes, but infrequently, referred to as the 'Elephants' or 'White Elephants'. Their mascot is nicknamed
Stomper.
University of Alabama's
Crimson Tide mascot has been an elephant since 1930 after a sportswriter wrote of a fan yelling "Hold your horses, the elephants are coming!" as the football team rumbled onto the field.
[60] Their elephant-costumed "
Big Al" officially debuted at the
1979 Sugar Bowl.
Music
Film and television
Architecture
In the 18th-century, French architect
Charles Ribart planned to build a three-level elephant building at the
Paris site where the
Arc de Triomphe was eventually built. Nothing became of this, but in the early 19th-century,
Napoleon conceived of an even larger elephant structure, the
Elephant of the Bastille. Although the ambitious project was never completed with its intended bronze elephant, a full-sized plaster and wood-frame model stood in its place. After Napoleon's defeat, this structure eventually became a neglected eyesore, and a setting in
Victor Hugo's 1862 novel,
Les Misérables.
Three multi-story elephant shaped buildings were built in America by
James V. Lafferty in the 1880s. The largest, seven-story, thirty-one room
Elephantine Colossus served as a hotel, concert hall, and attraction on
Coney Island before it burned down in 1896. The six-story
Lucy the Elephant is the only remaining of the three, and survives as a tourist attraction near
Atlantic City. These giant elephant structures, however, are dwarfed by the 32-story
Bangkok Elephant Tower in Thailand. This iconic elephant-inspired building reflects the influence of the elephant in Thai culture.
[66]
Gallery
Elephant catching a flying tengu
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A royal white elephant in 19th century Thai art
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Fontana dell'Elefante(Fountain of the Elephant); Catania's symbol
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Elephant & Castle statue, London
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Dernier projet pour la fontaine de l'Éléphant de la Bastille (1809–1810), Watercolor by Jean-Antoine Alavoine
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