Kūrma, Ananta Śeṣa, and Dik-gajas

The material-universe section includes Kūrma, Ananta Śeṣa, and directional elephants, or dik-gajas. They belong to the support imagery of traditional cosmography and express that the universe rests on divine order rather than being self-sustaining.

Directly beneath Narakaloka and Pitṛloka, which rest on Ananta Śeṣa's coils — Ananta Śeṣa in turn rests on Kūrma, in the ocean beneath the entire material universe.

In the chart's traditional support imagery, it shows the material universe isn't self-supporting — even its physical stability rests on a form of the Lord holding it up.

Even the ground the universe rests on is held up by something else. Very little is actually self-supporting, if you trace it back far enough.