Himavanta creature
Chaddanta: The Six-Tusked Elephant King
Pāli Jātaka narrative; medieval and Thai reception
Enter Chaddanta’s immense lake world of elephant herds, forests, caves, flowers, radiance, and remembered sorrow.
The six-tusked elephant king
Chaddanta is a magnificent white elephant king with six tusks and a following of eight thousand elephants. His Jātaka tells a story of remembered hurt, revenge, generosity, and grief, giving the marvelous body a deeply human moral weight.
Later Thai painting adds colored radiance and aerial movement, expanding the elephant’s splendor within the visual world of Himavanta.
Story-rich. Enter Chaddanta’s immense lake world of elephant herds, forests, caves, flowers, radiance, and remembered sorrow. It belongs to Pāli Jātaka narrative; medieval and Thai reception and appears in Ja 514 Chaddanta Lake: water centre, plant belts, mountain rings, banyan, cave, and seasonal movement..
At a glance
- 6 tusks
- The elephant king
- 50 × 50 yojanas
- Lake extent
- 12 yojanas
- Clear-water centre
- 8,000
- Elephants in the herd
A lake built for elephant life
Chaddanta Lake measures fifty by fifty yojanas, with a clear centre twelve yojanas wide. Belts of flowers and plants surround the water, followed by seven mountain rings. The outer Golden Mountain rises seven yojanas; the next six descend one yojana at a time toward the lake.
The northeastern banyan has a trunk five yojanas thick, rises seven, spreads eight, and is supported by eight thousand aerial roots. In the west, a twelve-yojana Golden Cave shelters the king and his herd during the rainy and cold seasons. The landscape follows animal needs—water, food, migration, shade, and seasonal refuge.
How the story traveled
The medieval Sāratthadīpanī retells Chaddanta material while openly drawing on the Jātaka commentary. Thai cosmographies and the Berlin Traiphum develop the lake and the elephant kingdom again in words and pictures.
Across these retellings, Chaddanta remains both creature and place: an unforgettable elephant whose name organizes an entire world.
The Chaddanta landscape by rings and landmarksOpen the comparison and follow the sequence.
The Chaddanta landscape by rings and landmarks
| Element | Position or scale | Role in elephant life |
|---|---|---|
| Clear water | 12-yojana centre | Open heart of the 50-yojana lake |
| Plant belts | Successive zones around the water | Flowers, food, color, and ecological rhythm |
| Mountain rings | Seven rings descending from 7 to 1 yojana high | Enclose the lake in a graded structure |
| Great banyan | Northeast | A monumental living landmark |
| Golden Cave | West; 12 yojanas | Rainy- and cold-season shelter |
| Elephant herd | 8,000 | The social world ruled by Chaddanta |
From lake centre to mountain edge
- Twelve-yojana clear water
- Successive flower and plant belts
- Seven enclosing mountain rings
- Northeast great banyan
- Western Golden Cave
- Seasonal movement of the 8,000-elephant herd
Inside the six-tusked elephant kingdomChaddanta is unusually complete because animal biography, seasonal behavior, vegetation, mountains, and water all belong to the same tragedy.
Jātaka 514 · p. 1778
A lake fifty yojanas square
The lake measures fifty by fifty yojanas and contains a twelve-yojana clear-water centre. The dimensions describe this story world, not Anotatta.
Lake ecology
Concentric life
Successive plant belts surround the clear centre and seven mountain rings rise beyond them, turning the elephant kingdom into a layered environmental cross-section.
Jātaka 514
Seven mountains descend toward the lake
The outer Golden Mountain rises seven yojanas; the remaining six rings descend one yojana at a time toward the water, producing a stepped enclosure.
Jātaka 514
A banyan held up by eight thousand roots
Northeast of the lake, the great banyan has a five-yojana trunk, rises seven yojanas, spreads eight, and sends down eight thousand aerial roots.
Seasonal geography
Banyan east, Golden Cave west
A great banyan stands to the northeast while a twelve-yojana Golden Cave in the western mountain shelters the herd during rainy and cold seasons.
Elephant society
A king among eight thousand
The six-tusked Chaddanta rules eight thousand elephants. Movement, hierarchy, radiance, bodily scale, and memory give the landscape its emotional force.
Sāratthadīpanī and Berlin II 650
A medieval retelling and a painted one
The medieval dossier explicitly depends on Jātaka commentary; the Berlin manuscript turns numerical elephant lore and aerial movement into its own visual episode.
Notes and further readingPassages, pages, objects, and books for anyone who wants to go deeper
In the sources
Details you can look up
These short notes lead directly to the texts and objects used in the guide.
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Primary textView source
Ja 514 lake kingdom
Ja 514 gives a 50 × 50-yojana Chaddanta Lake, a 12-yojana clear-water centre, plant belts, seven mountain rings, a northeast banyan, and a western Golden Cave.
Where to find it: Ja 514, governing PDF p. 1778
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Primary textView source
Medieval inherited layer
Sāratthadīpanī’s Chaddanta dossier has an explicit dependency on Chaddantajātaka commentary.
Where to find it: H5-G2-CLM-0059–0068
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Manuscript objectView source
Berlin inscription
The Berlin sample’s Chaddanta inscription records six tusks, 8,000 followers, measurements, coloured radiance, and aerial travel.
Where to find it: H8-C027 / H8-O012
Further reading
Books, texts, objects, and studies
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Primary textreceived Pāli Jātaka commentary
Chaddanta Jātaka commentary
Ja 514; History 2 edition review reviewed occurrences
A named elephant-king narrative with its own lake, plants, mountains, and seasonal movement.
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Primary textmedieval Theravāda subcommentary
Sāratthadīpanī: seven lakes, peaks, and southern water dossier
Vol. 1 pp. 93–95; edition review occurrence records
The richest connected audited Pāli-area exposition: five peaks, seven lakes, mouths, a staged water route, and Mandākinī ecology.
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Primary text1983 edition of a layered textual tradition
Traibhumikathā: National Library of Thailand governing edition
National Library corrected edition, pp. 133–139
The reviewed Thai passages provide lakes, peaks, partial animal-direction wording, a five-river route, Chaddanta, and an ethical frame.
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Manuscript objecteighteenth-century Thonburi object
Berlin Traiphum II 650: reviewed public Himavanta section
Public-study sample, especially fols. 20v–53v; Anotatta fols. 35v–36v
The review controls visible public material, including the Anotatta animal row and lake axes.
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