With the much awaited chandrayan (Mission to Moon) from ISRO around the corner, its time to look into one of the interesting encodings that Indian astronomers of yore have recorded into their works.Almost all hindu astronomical works and famous pieces of literature talk about Ashta-diggajas, the Eight male elephants holding the earth in its place.
Etymology of the word being Ashta = Eight, Dig = Direction, Gajas = Elephants. The works even mention extra eight female Elephants names which happen to be wives of the Eight male elephants.
This, like many other concepts in ancient Hindu astronomical texts is an allusion and not some dogma from organized religions that claimed Earth was flat. The Eight elephants in eight cardinal directions represent the most significant gravitational forces between Earth and other entities in our solar system. Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Eclipse alignments have significant impact on gravitational force experienced by Earth. The gravitational forces to and from in each direction with respect to Earth are the eight Elephants and their wives who up-hold it in its place in our solar system.
Its a beautiful concept encoded in an even more beautiful way. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it.