Diggajas, the Elephants Who Bear the Earth

The Diggajas are the mighty elephants of great tejas (radiance) and bala (strength) who stand in the directions. They carry the whole earth, with its mountains and forests, on themselves. In the Diggaja-Rahasya, in chapter 132 of the Anuśāsana Parva, Brahmā sends his messenger Reṇuka to the Diggajas. He is to learn the dharma-rahasya (secret of dharma) that they alone hold. It is a rite that eases the Diggajas’ constant burden when people perform it, and it brings great puṇya (merit) to the one who does it.

Their nature and burden

The Diggajas bear the whole earth, with its mountains, forests and all that it holds. Its weight presses on them from below without pause. They are pained by this weight, yet they bear it without complaint. They do not let the strain trouble their calm, and they go on holding up the world in silence. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 132)

The rahasya told to Reṇuka

Reṇuka, the messenger of Brahmā, came to them with the approval of the devas and the pitṛs (the ancestors). The Diggajas taught him this rite.

It is done in the month of Kārtika, in the dark fortnight (kṛshṇapaksha), on the eighth day (ashṭamī), under the star Āśleshā.
The performer fasts and is free of anger.
After sunset he places an offering of jaggery rice in an anthill. It is placed on a bed of elephant-flowers, with black cloth and unguents.
With the offering he says a mantra that calls on the nāga kings, who do not die or decay, and their offspring.
The mantra calls on the very bala of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa, who once bore the earth himself. The nāga kings in turn give that bala to those who do this rite.

When the rite is done with upavāsa (fasting) over a full year, it eases the Diggajas’ own endless burden. It gives the human performer puṇya equal to a hundred years of ātithya (hospitality) to the elephants of all three worlds. The devas, the pitṛs and the great ṛshis heard Reṇuka’s report of this teaching and honoured him greatly. (Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 132)

Sources

Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, chapter 132