Pātra No. 12
Indra's white elephant.
“Of lordly elephants, I am Airāvata… of cows, I am Kāmadhuk.”
Indra’s white elephant Airāvata and the wish-granting cow both rose from the churning of the ocean. In chapter 10 Kṛṣṇa names both: of elephants, Airāvata; of cows, Kāmadhuk.
Arjuna asked his. Samvāda answers yours with the Gītā's own verses.
Samvāda is software, an AI companion tuned to the Bhagavad Gītā. It is not a person. It answers from the verse and shows you which one, and it never pretends to be Kṛṣṇa.
उच्चैःश्रवसमश्वानां विद्धि माममृतोद्भवम्।
ऐरावतं गजेन्द्राणां नराणां च नराधिपम्।।
uccaiḥśravasam aśvānāṁ viddhi mām amṛtodbhavam airāvataṁ gajendrāṇāṁ narāṇāṁ ca narādhipam
Of horses, know Me to be Uccaihsravas, the nectar-born. Of lordly elephants, I am Airavata, and of men, I am the monarch.
आयुधानामहं वज्रं धेनूनामस्मि कामधुक्।
प्रजनश्चास्मि कन्दर्पः सर्पाणामस्मि वासुकिः।।
āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ dhenūnām asmi kāmadhuk prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ sarpāṇām asmi vāsukiḥ
Of weapons, I am the Vajra (thunderbolt); of cows, I am Kamadhuk; I am Kandarpa, the cause of progeny; of serpents, I am Vasuki.
10.27 is verse 399 of 700, and verse 27 of 42 in chapter 10.
Airāvata, in any form, appears in exactly one verse of the 700, 10.27.
Kāmadhuk the cow is named in the very next verse after Airāvata, 10.27 and 10.28.
Counted by Vāṇi on the 700-verse text at getvani.app/gita.
Chapter 10 is the long list in which Kṛṣṇa names what he is, one best example at a time. 10.27 sits in the middle of it. Of horses, he says, know me as Uccaiḥśravas, born of nectar. Of lordly elephants he is Airāvata, and of men, the king. The verse before, 10.26, names the Aśvattha tree, Nārada among seers, Citraratha and Kapila. The verse after, 10.28, goes on with the thunderbolt among weapons, Kāmadhuk among cows, Kandarpa as the cause of offspring and Vāsuki among serpents. So the two creatures in this story sit one verse apart, in the same unbroken run. The list answers Arjuna's wish to hear the divine glories: wherever you see the best of anything, you are seeing a trace of him. The setting is in chapter 10, and what the Gītā says about devotion follows its themes.