Airāvata
In Indian mythologies, Airāvata is the divine Vāhana (vehicle) of Indra deva, the king of all the Devas. It is a white elephant who carries the deity Indra. Airāvata is also called abhra-Matanga, meaning elephant of the clouds, Naga-malla meaning “the fighting elephant“; and Arka-sodara, meaning brother of the sun. Airāvata has four tusks and seven trunks and is spotless white.
There is a story that Airāvata was responsible for the churning of the milk-ocean (Samudra-manthana).
Details at https://divinediyaas.blogspot.com/2020/11/ .
Once some Apsarās (maidens of dēvalōka) presented a garland of flowers to the short-tempered sage Dūrvāsa. When Dūrvāsa Mahārishi visited Indra’s court he gave that garland to Indra. Indra put it on the tusks of his divine vāhana, Airāvata.
The fragrance of the flowers attracted a swarm of bees which became an intolerable nuisance to Airāvata. So Airāvata tore the garland off his tusks and hurled it away. This was seen as an insult by Dūrvāsa. In his anger he cursed all the gods.
The curse was that all gods should experience old age and the frailty and susceptibilities of old age. Though Dūrvāsa cursed the gods, he also granted a solution. The gods could redeem themselves from the curse by drinking Amrita obtained from the ocean of Milk. The curse began to operate, and the gods lost their perennial youth. The gods then befriended the Asuras and with their help they churned the ocean of Milk. They got the Amrita, drank it and regained their youth. More details of this story can be found at https://divinediyaas.blogspot.com/2020/11/
We can see this scene depicted in the sky.
Sagittarius and its neighboring constellations
Sagittarius as Airāvata
Sagittarius represents the elephant Airāvata and Corona Australis the garland hurled by Airāvata in the scene described above involving Apsarās, Dūrvāsa, Indra and Airāvata. The elephant is supposed to be having multiple heads and tusks. Its representation is really difficult to fathom without a reference. The stars of the central trapezoid in Sagittarius are supposed to be part of the tusks which belong to Poorva Āshādha (Makara) and Uttara Āshādha (Dhanus) Nakshatras. The symbol for both these Nakshatras include Elephant tusk. The constellation is next to Scorpius, which represents Indra. To visualize it, the Sagittarius must be seen upside down as illustrated below
Astronomy In Ancient Indian Belief Systems
Do you want to find out more about the the path taken by the liberated souls from Earth to heaven? Are you curious to find out further on the complete details how Hercules is Lord Vishnu, Orion is Lord Shiva and re-discover the astronomical origins of other Indian pantheon like Lakshmi, Daksha Brahma, Prajāpati, Indra, Nārada, Dhanvaṅtari, Kubēra; divine vehicles like Garuda, Naṅdi, Makara, Adishēsha, Vāsuki, Airāvata; divine animals like Kāmadhēnu, Uchchaishravas? Why Auriga is Mount Meru? Where is Kailāsa, Vaikuṅtha, Gōlōka? Would you be interested to understand the origins of various Indian festivals throughout the year?
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Astronomy In Ancient Indian Belief Systems
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