4111) Did You Know Series (116); 1) An elephant named Mohini guided by her mahavat Dilshad and helper Sonu, was the one to carry the Special Philatelic Covers from Siddharth Enclave to Buddhapex-25 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh; 2) The Taming of the Mad Elephant Nalagiri by the Buddha in Buddhist Literature: Date/Year of Special Philatelic Cover issue: 10.07.2025:
Links to Posts on Buddha on this Blog:
1) 2550 years of Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha: Commemorative stamps issued by India Post
2) "Mahabodhi Temple": "MyStamps" (issued by India Post): Rajeev
An elephant named Mohini guided by her mahavat Dilshad and helper Sonu, was the one to carry the Special Philatelic Covers from Siddharth Enclave to Buddhapex-25 in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on July 10, 2025, to commemorate the Buddhapex-25 exhibition and the life of Gautam Buddha.
This event featured the first official Golden Cancellation in Uttar Pradesh, depicting the story of Buddha and Nalagiri, and was part of the Uttar Pradesh Postal Circle's initiative to celebrate the life and teachings of the Buddha.
This was a historic philatelic event, marking the release of India's first elephant-carried cover and Uttar Pradesh's first official Golden Cancellation.
The Special Cover features the famous story of Buddha and the Nalagiri elephant, where the beast, released by King Ajatashatru to attack Buddha, was calmed by Buddha's compassion and bowed before him.
The special cancellation was a unique Golden Cancellation, a first of its kind in Uttar Pradesh, used to be used on a Buddha commemorative stamp released in 2007 by India Post.
Postal details: In this historic philatelic event in Gorakhpur, the elephant carried a special postal covers from the Siddharth Enclave Post Office to the Buddha Museum and delivered them to the Dy.Director, Philately Gorakhpur, Lucknow Postal Circle.
The event took place on July 10, 2025, to celebrate Guru Purnima and the first-ever specialised philatelic exhibition in the region, BUDDHAPEX-25.
Details of the special cover:
Theme: The philatelic cover featured a unique golden pictorial cancellation commemorating the Buddhist legend of the Nalagiri elephant. In the story, the Nalagiri elephant is sent to attack the Buddha but is calmed by his compassion. The cancellation shows Buddha calming the elephant.
Significance: This was the first time in Uttar Pradesh that a postal cover was carried by an elephant and featured an official golden cancellation. The cancellation was applied over a commemorative Buddha stamp released by India Post in 2007.
The elephant's role: The female elephant, named Mohini, was guided by her mahout, Dilshad, and helper, Sonu, during the ceremonial delivery. An official postman rode the elephant to post the covers.
The special postal stamps issued by Bhartiya Dak/India Post in 2007 depicting the sequence of events leading to the enlightenment of the Buddha.
The Cover of the Philatelic Album containing the Special Cover (SC) and the Buddha enlightenment Stamp set issued in 2007.
Links to Posts on Buddha on this Blog:
1) 2550 years of Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha: Commemorative stamps issued by India Post
2) "Mahabodhi Temple": "MyStamps" (issued by India Post): Rajeev
The Buddha's taming/calming of the elephant Nalagiri in Buddhist Literature:
Maha Prajnaparamita Sastra - by Gelongma Karma Migme Chödrön:
In Buddhism Mahayana:
This page describes “Buddha’s subjugation of the elephant nalagiri (or dhanapala)” as written by Nagarjuna in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra (lit. “the treatise on the great virtue of wisdom”) in the 2nd century.
This book, written in five volumes, represents an encyclopedia on Buddhism as well as a commentary on the “Pancavimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita”.
It is also mentioned in another legend:
“A-chö-che (Ajātaśatru) unleashed drunken elephants
intending to kill the Buddha, but the latter was not afraid and tamed the mad
elephants. When the inhabitants of Rājagṛha, redoubling their respect (gurukāra),
came out with perfumed flowers and ornaments (ābharaṇa)
to offer to the Buddha, the latter experienced no joy”.
A brief allusion to the miracle of the subjugation of the elephant Nālāgiri or Dhanapāla:
The stories of this miracle can be arranged into three groups:
1) the sources that present it as a miracle of loving-kindness;
2) those that make it into a miracle of magic;
3) the late versions, somewhat aberrant, where the meaning of the miracle does not appear clearly.
I. The subjugation as a miracle of
loving-kindness:
The earliest sources have it that the Buddha converted the animal by means of the radiation of his loving-kindness (“maitrī”). There is an old belief that fierce animals, especially snakes, are sensitive to the good feelings expressed towards them.
1. Pāli Vinaya, II, p. 194–196:
In Rājagṛhā at that time there was the elephant Nālāgiri, fierce
(caṇḍa)
and a killer of men (“manussaghātaka”). Devadatta went to find its
mahouts and, taking advantage of his influence over king Ajātaśatru, ordered
them to loose the animal against the Buddha when the latter entered Rājagṛha.
This was done.
The next day, surrounded by many monks, the Buddha came to the city to beg for his food.
The elephant was unleashed and, with its trunk erect (“saṇḍaṃ
ussāpetvā”), ears and tail rigid (“pahaṭṭhakaṇṇavāla”),
rushed against the Teacher.
The monks begged the Buddha to go back, but the latter reassured them that no aggression coming from the exterior could deprive him of his life.
Frightened, the population of Rājagṛha
took refuge on the roof-tops and made wagers as to who would win, the
man-elephant (the Buddha) or the animal-elephant (Nālāgiri).
Then the Blessed One penetrated Nālāgiri with a mind of loving-kindness (“Nālāgiriṃ mettena cittena phari”) and, lowering its trunk (“soṇḍaṃ oropetvā”), the animal stopped in front of the Buddha who caressed its forehead with his right hand (dakkhiṇena hatthena hatthissa kumbhaṃ parāmasanto), saying:
“O elephant, do not attack the Elephant; this attack would be shameful.
There can be no good destiny in the beyond for the one who kills the Elephant.
Flee from drunkenness (“mada”) and laziness (“pamāda”); the lazy miss the good destinies.
Act in such a way as to attain a good destiny.”
At these words, Nālāgiri gathered the sand-grains covering the feet of the Blessed One in his trunk and spread them on top of its head; then, still kneeling, it backed away, always keeping the Buddha in sight.
It was on this occasion that the people chanted the following stanza (see also Majjhima, II, p. 105; Theragāthā, v. 878):
“Some tame them with blows of the stick, with pitchforks or with whips;
With neither stick nor weapon was the elephant tamed by the Great Sage.”
2. Jātaka, V, p. 333–337:
The “Cullahaṃsajātaka”
(no. 533) reproduces the preceding source, not without adding numerous details.
When the Buddha made his entry into Rājagṛhā,
he was accompanied by many monks coming from the eighteen monasteries situated
in the neighborhood of the city.
Seeing the rush of the elephant, the eighteen great abbots, Śāriputra, etc., suggested that they would tame the animal, but the Buddha refused their offer and asked them to remain in their place.
The good Ānanda insisted on staying beside the Blessed One in order to be killed before him, and the Blessed One had to use his magical powers to put him back beside his colleagues.
The sources that follow have it that, at the approach of the elephant, all the arhat monks except for Ānanda fled shamefully, and they will contrast their cowardice with the complete devotion of the preferred disciple, it is possible that this not very edifying incident was part of the original story but that the Pāli texts passed over it in silence so as not to cause any trouble in the Saṃgha.
However, the “Ceylonese Theravādins” were aware of it by way of the Milindapañha, the Pāli version of an original Prakrit seemingly coming from the north-west of India.
In this version (p. 207–208), King Milinda (Menander) asked Nāgasena how it was possible that arhats supposed to be free of all fear took flight before the elephant.
3. Mahīśāsaka Vinaya:
This source is very close to the Pāli Vinaya, but here it is King Ajātaśatru himself who urged the mahouts to loose the mad elephant after having made it drunk. All the disciples abandoned the Buddha with the exception of Ānanda.
A longer version than the preceding ones.
Warned by Devadatta seven days in advance, the mahout
watched for the Buddha’s coming and was warned of his approach by a series of
wonders which are usual why the Blessed One enters the gates (“indrakīla”)
of a city: the elephants trumpet (“hastinaḥ
kroñcanti”), the horses neigh (“aśvā heṣante”),
the bulls bellow (“ṛṣabhā garjanti”), etc., etc.
To convert the elephant Dhanapāla, the Buddha entered into the concentration on loving-kindness (maitrīsamādhi), caressed its forehead and taught it the Dharma.
Finally, for the edification of the crowd who were cheering him, he entered into the concentration of the brilliance of fire ("tejodhātusamādhi") and, emitting all kinds of rays, he accomplished the twin miracle ("yamakaprātihārya") of water and fire. This miracle, accomplished by the Buddha.
Buddhacartita by Aśvaghoṣa and Buddhacarita compiled by Saṃgharakṣa:
In their poetic tales of the deeds of the Buddha, these
two authors, supposedly contemporaries of Kaniṣka, again insist on the
miraculous power (prabhāva) of the Buddha’s loving-kindness.
II. The subjugation as a miracle of magic:
Indeed, there are numerous texts that have it that Śākyamuni tamed Dhanapāla, not so much by his spiritual power, but by the brute force of his magic. To support this new version of the facts, it sufficed for them to use a banal cliché in the words of which the Blessed One tamed wild animals “by making five hairy maned lions appear, with two masses of fire on the right and on the left and above a huge iron rock” or else a fiery ditch.
The sources that exploit this cliché – mostly Sarvāstivādin in origin – do not fail to insist on the flight of the arhats and on Ānanda’s devotion; they are also interested in the fate of the elephant after its conversion.
1) Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya:
The episode of Dhanapālaka in its original text appears in the manuscript of the Saṅghabhedavastu (fol. 491b–493b) found by G. Tucci in Pakistan in 1957. He was kind enough to send me [Lamotte] a copy prepared by the care of Prof. Raniero Gnoli, to both of whom I am indebted for their kindness.
The Buddha accompanied by five hundred monks went to Rājagṛha. He was challenged from the heights of the ramparts by Ajātaśatru and Devadatta who had plotted his death. The Teacher announced to them that he was going to manifest his marvelous power.
When the elephant Dhanapālaka rushed against him, the Blessed One on the palm of his right hand created by magic five maned lions with ribbons on their heads; having smelled their scent, the elephant began to flee, releasing urine and excrement.
By virtue of the Blessed One, all the directions in space began to flare up into one great mass of fire with the exception of the spot where the Blessed One was standing where there was perfect calm.
After
a moment of panic, Dhanapālaka approached the Blessed One slowly and the latter
caressed his head with his hand marked with the marks of the wheel and the
svastika, a hand resulting from many hundreds of merits and capable of
reassuring the frightened. Speaking to the elephant in stanzas, the Buddha
reproached him for his past behavior and taught him the three seals of Dharma,
sarvasaṃskārā
anityāḥ,
etc.
The Buddha then entered into the house of the householder who had invited him. The elephant who was following him tried to enter as well but only succeeded in demolishing the house. The Blessed One changed the house into rock crystal so that the elephant could see him without difficulty.
When the meal was over, the Blessed One left the walls of
Rājagṛha
to go back to his monastery. Dhanapālaka tried to follow him but was seized by
the mahouts (hastidāmaka) and put into iron chains. Thus deprived of the sight
of the Buddha, the animal crushed its trunk with its foreleg and died
asphyxiated (sa bhagavantam upaśyam pādena śuṇḍām avaṣṭabhya
kālagataḥ).
Dhanapālaka was reborn aming the Cāturmahārajika gods and, in this paradise, went to the Veṇuvana to meet the Buddha again and covered him with flowers. The Blessed One preached the Dharma to him and this ‘son of the gods who had been an elephant’ (nāgapūrvī devaputraḥ) saw the noble Truths and obtained the srotaāpattiphala.
2) Mahāvibhāṣā:
(T 1545, k. 83, p. 429a12–b2)
On the invitation of a vaiśya, accompanied by a crowd of monks, the Blessed One came down from Gṛdhrakuṭaparvata and went to Rājagṛha.
King Ajātaśatru, instigated by Devadatta, loosed the mad drunken elephant Dhanapāla against him. The Tathāgata extended his right hand and, from the ends of his five fingers, there sprang forth five lions. At the sight of them, the elephant looked about, took fright and fled. At once the Buddha created magically a deep ditch five hundred cubits in width.
Seeing this, the astonished elephant looked from right to left, but from right to left the Buddha magically created high walls ready to collapse.
The panic-stricken elephant then looked upward, but the Buddha created magically in the air a huge flaming rock threatening to fall down. Seeing this, the terrified elephant looked everywhere, but the Buddha everywhere magically created burning fires.
Only near the Buddha was there any coolness and calm. (tato bhagavatā dakṣiṇe
karatale pañca siṃhāḥ kesariṇaḥ paṭṭadhāriṇo … pādamūlaṃ śantaṃ śantībhūtam adhiṣṭhiṭam).
The elephant awoke from its drunkenness, approached slowly and the Buddha made
the five lions disappear. The elephant rubbed the Buddhas feet with its trunk,
the Buddha caressed its forehead and, borrowing the language of elephants,
preached the Dharma to it: sarvasaṃskārā anityāḥ,
etc.
Dhanapāla became disgusted with its animal destiny and
abstained from eating and drinking. He died and was reborn among the Trāyastriṃśa
gods. Remembering the benefits of the Buddha, he went to him: the Blessed One
preached him the Dharma and the new god saw the four noble Truths.
3) Ekottarāgama:
(T 125, k. 9, p. 590a8–591a7)
The Buddha was at Rājagṛha in the Kalandaka Veṇuvana and was expecting to go the next day into the city on his begging-round. Devadatta proposed to king Ajātaśatru to loose the fierce elephant Nālāgiri against him. The king agreed and proclaimed that the animal would be loosed the next day and that consequently traffic in the city would be forbidden. Devadatta commented to the king that if the Buddha were truly omniscient he would be careful not to leave his monastery.
III. Late versions:
It is not to the texts examined hitherto that the Traité seems to be referring in its brief allusion to the miracle of Rājagṛha, but to shorter and later sources where the original meaning of the miracle of maitrī seems to have become blurred and where the rôle of the individuals is modified noticeably.
Henceforth the responsibility for the plot against the Buddha’s life rests mainly, no longer on Devadatta, but on king Ajātaśatru. He unleashes not just one elephant (Nālāgiri or Dhanapāla) but a number of elephants, the number of which is usually given as five hundred.
In order to tame them, the Buddha magically creates five hundred lions. At the approach of the elephants, the five hundred arhats accompanying the Buddha again take flight, but the good Ānanda, instead of exposing his master, remains nailed in place by fear. Finally king Ajātaśatru, impressed by the magic miracle, excuses himself to the Buddha by placing the blame onto Devadatta.
Links to Posts on Buddha on this Blog:
1) 2550 years of Mahaparinirvana of the Buddha: Commemorative stamps issued by India Post
2) "Mahabodhi Temple": "MyStamps" (issued by India Post): Rajeev
International Philately Exhibitions:
7) HAFNIA 24, Copenhagen, Denmark: Celebrating 400 Years of Danish Post: India Post participated in the Stamp Exhibition held from 17.10.2024 to 20.10.2024 with two Special Covers
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Posts on "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" on this Blog:
AMRITPEX 2023 (THE NATIONAL PHILATELY EXHIBITION) held at New Delhi from 11-15.02.2023:
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Five Special Covers released by Philately Division, Dak Bhawan, New Delhi:
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Santosh Khanna has commented:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for sharing this interesting and informative post."
Thank you so much, Khanna sahab.
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