The wayward Brahmin
One symbolic moment is when Arjun decides the gods have demoted him. In fact, this represents the fact that Arjun is being told a joke, but he hasn't heard the punchline yet. Yes, for the moment, his fate has taken him into a place of learning, growth, fear and trembling—not the least of which might be humility—but only for a time. Arjun doesn't see that in the fullness of time, he will be a legend and the people's hero. His life is a symbol for patience and humility.
The symbol of death
When the evil-doers murder Arjun's uncle, he is forced to encounter death. Death is his ultimate slavery, after all, and no matter what he does, he now knows how he will end. In the meantime, he is limited to slavery, which is a second kind of death. What Arjun wants is to be free from the binds of fate, and to be free from the binds of death, but in both question, he discovers he is unable to change anything. This is a symbol for the powerless nature of humans in their suffering.
The symbol of chaos and malice
Out of the desert comes a band of marauders who stop Arjun's caravan during their travel. Highwaymen beat and rob them, killing the uncle, capturing Arjun and his sister, Arjun for labor, and his sister for labor of a different, more tragic nature. Arjun witnesses these moments in time almost randomly, without warning. Therefore, the marauders are symbols for the chaos of nature (because they came out of the desert) and for the additional burdens of human malice and evil.
The elephants
The elephants represent exactly what humans say when they see elephants for the first time. "How the heck are those things real?" They're simply astonishing, beautiful, elegant creatures, and the fact that Arjun is a slave warrior on a patient, intelligent animal has an almost "Palm Sunday" kind of feel, because after all Arjun is a kind of hero. Therefore, Arjun's elephants represent his own personal mastery; they are his helpers and his "spirit animal" so to speak.
The stone carver
To carve stone is to make decisions about how future generations experience the community. Think about the time this novel takes place—what are they going to do? Post a video about it to YouTube? If they want a story to last, they need to carve it into stone, so the final act, when Arjun becomes a carver of stone, that is evidence that the bounds of fate (represented by Arjun's constantly enslavement) do not limit humans from accomplishing a great legacy for themselves. The stone represents time, and that Arjun has established himself in folklore.
