Skip to content
Airāvata
EntityQ440861· pop 38· linked from 145 articles

Also known as Airavata, Airaavath

thumb|Indra (alias Sakra) and [[Shachi riding the five-headed Divine Elephant Airavata, Folio from a Jain text, Panch Kalyanaka (Five Auspicious Events in the Life of Jina Rishabhanatha), c. 1670–1680, Painting in LACMA museum, originally from Amber, Rajasthan]]

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • Hindu tradition
  • Jain tradition
  • Flags with Airavata
  • Erawan
  • In popular culture
  • See also
  • Citations
  • General references
  • External links

thumb|Indra (alias Sakra) and [[Shachi riding the five-headed Divine Elephant Airavata, Folio from a Jain text, Panch Kalyanaka (Five Auspicious Events in the Life of Jina Rishabhanatha), c. 1670–1680, Painting in LACMA museum, originally from Amber, Rajasthan]]

Airavata (, Pāḷi Erāvana, Sinhala: Airāvana) is a divine elephant. According to sacred Hindu texts, Airavata was born with three heads, six tusks and three trunks. He is pristine white. Some Puranas say Airavata was born with ten tusks, five trunks, and 10 teeth, representing 10 directions. He is the "king of elephants" and serves as the main vehicle for the deity Indra. He is also called 'Abhra-matanga', meaning "elephant of the clouds"; 'Naga-malla', meaning "the fighting elephant"; and 'Arkasodara', meaning "brother of the sun". 'Abhramu' is the elephant wife of Airavata. Airavata is also the third son of Iravati. In the Mahabharata he is listed as a great serpent.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Airāvata” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)