elephant
animal · 10 works · 14 mentions · 18 anchored passages
elephants · an elephant · the elephant · Hastini · elephant-splendour · female elephant · herds of elephants · snake-handed elephants · the elephants' necks · the mighty elephant
spoken of as
1 expressionelephants5 mentions
On Anger (Latin) · Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa (Sanskrit) · De Rerum Natura (Latin)
the grunting of a pig terrifies elephants.
in the texts
On the Nature of the Gods
An animal cited as an example both of something islanders would disbelieve in without direct experience and of a creature whose sagacity does not match its shape.
None of the beasts is more sagacious than the elephant;
and if anyone spoke to you of an elephant, you would think you were even being laughed at?
but among men themselves, are there not, even with the most similar forms, unlike characters, and, with like characters, unlike shapes?
On Anger
Animal cited as terrified by the grunting of a pig, illustrating groundless fear.
the grunting of a pig terrifies elephants.
Look at the elephants' necks bowed to the yoke, the bulls' backs trodden with impunity by boys and women alike as they leap about, the serpents gliding with harmless slither among the cups and in the bosom, the placid mouths of bears and lions within the house, and the wild beasts fawning on those who handle them;
Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa
Elephants of the city, described as trumpeting in confusion and dropping their food as an omen.
elephants dropped their mouthfuls of food;
her elephants, warriors, and troops of horses all cried out.
That city, thrown into confusion and agitation, resounded with great noise — the trumpeting of frenzied elephants and the jingling of horses.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
Largest female size-class ('Hastini'); also names an animal-imitative congress.
Woman also, according to the depth of her yoni, is either a female deer, a mare, or a female elephant.
On the female side, the elephant and bull, the mare and hare, form low unions, while the elephant and the hare make the lowest unions.
On the occasion of a "high congress" the Mrigi (Deer) woman should lie down in such a way as to widen her yoni, while in a "low congress" the Hastini (Elephant) woman should lie down so as to contract hers.
Atharvaveda (Paippalāda)
An elephant whose splendour serves as the recurring standard invoked throughout the splendor hymn.
May the elephant-splendour spread wide, the great glory that arose from the body of Aditi.
As great as is the splendour of the sun and of the mighty elephant — that much splendour, O you two Aśvins garlanded with lotus-wreaths, create for me.
As far as the four cardinal directions, as far as the eye reaches in its range — let that vital power, that elephant-splendour, gather itself entirely within me.
Stromata
An elephant used in an anecdote illustrating communication among animals.
When an elephant, for instance, fell into the mud and cried out, another that was present and saw what had happened turned back and, after no long while, brings with him a herd of elephants and saves the one that had fallen in.
De Rerum Natura
Elephants, cited as an animal species abundant in India though rarely seen elsewhere, illustrating a point about the infinite supply of atomic seeds for any kind.
Such few examples.
With ivory ramparts India about,
Snake-handed elephants, whose thousands wall
Letters to Lucilius
A large tamed animal made to kneel and perform by a keeper, part of the closing analogy on taming.
The little Ethiopian bids the elephant kneel down and walk along a rope.
Law in a Free State
An animal cited in the clerk's anecdote about a legal case requiring a special license to ride one through the city.
I know elephants are not allowed to go through the streets without a special license in the daytime, because our people had a case in which a man wanted to ride an elephant through the city and distribute coloured leaflets, and the Bench said that …” Policeman—“Traction engines isn't elephants;