Airāvata, Indra’s Elephant
Airāvata, “born of the waters”
Airāvata is the divine vāhana of Indra (Devendra), the white elephant on which the king of the devas rides out to battle and in procession. The Vāmana Purāṇa tells that he was born from the palm of Rudra‘s hand, a white elephant of matchless speed and strength. Indra rode him against the daitya Andhaka, who brought him to the ground with his bare hands; Indra and Śacī Devī rode him in Bhagavān Śiva‘s wedding procession; and twice he was carried off with the treasures of svarga, by the dānavas Śumbha and Niśumbha and by Murāsura. So great is his name that the Purāṇa measures the majesty of other elephants against him.
His birth
When Andhaka marched on Meru, Indra made fit arrangements for the protection of his city Amarāvatī, mounted Airāvata and went out against him, and the dikpālas (the guardians of the directions) followed on their own vāhanas. Then Nārada Maharshi asked on which vāhanas the devas came, and Pulastya Maharshi named Airāvata first: the white elephant, born from the palm of Rudra‘s hand, of matchless speed and strength, the vāhana of Indra. From Rudra too were born Pauṇḍraka, the buffalo of Yama, from his thighs, and Jaladhi, the vāhana of Varuṇa, from his ear-wax.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 9
His fall before Andhaka
In the great battle of the devas and the daityas, Indra and Andhaka met in single combat. Indra hurled his vajra; it burned Andhaka’s chariot, charioteer, horses and flag, and Andhaka struck it to the ground with his fist. As Indra showered arrows on him, Andhaka warded them off and leapt upon Indra. Indra’s elephant was in rut; with the palm of his hand Andhaka crushed Airāvata’s frontal globes, with his feet he crushed his trunk, with his knees he broke his tusk to pieces, with his left fist he smashed his flanks, and he felled him to the ground. As Airāvata sank down, Indra jumped from his back, took up his vajra and withdrew to Amarāvatī.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 10
In the wedding procession of Bhagavān Śiva
When Bhagavān Śiva went from Mandara to the peaks of Kailāsa for his marriage to Devī Pārvatī, Indra with Śacī Devī went in the procession on Airāvata, with umbrellas of white cloth. In the same procession the tīrtha Pṛthūdaka went mounted on a rutting elephant like Airāvata.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 27
Seized by the dānavas
When Indra slew Namuci, his brothers Śumbha and Niśumbha made war on the devas and defeated them. Showing their strength, they carried off Indra’s Airāvata, together with Yama‘s buffalo, Varuṇa‘s umbrella, the gadā of the Maruts and Kubera‘s nidhis, Śaṅkha, Padma and the rest.
Later the dānava Murāsura, who held a vara from Brahmā that whomever he touched with his hand would die, forced his way into Amarāvatī. Indra left the city and went to the southern bank of the Yamunā, and Mura seized his throne, the elephant Airāvata and the vajra.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 29, 34
The race round Krauñca
When Indra and Skanda disputed which of them was the stronger, Indra proposed that whoever first went round Mount Krauñca would be the stronger. Skanda got down from his peacock and went round the mountain on foot; Indra got down from Airāvata, made the pradakshiṇa (the reverent circling), and was standing there when Guha returned.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 32
The measure of elephants
In the account of Gajendra Moksha, the leader of an elephant herd who came down to the lake on Mount Trikūṭa is described with his white tusks gleaming and mada streaming from his temples, drenching the mountain with its scent, walking like a mountain of collyrium and outdoing Airāvata.
Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 58
Sources
- Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapters 9–10, 27, 29, 32, 34, 58