History and culture of elephants in Sri Lanka
Jayantha JAYAWARDENE
PACHYDERMS: The Sri Lankan people have had a long association with
elephants for a very long time. It has been a part of their traditional
and religious activities.
This association goes back to the pre-Christian era. There was an
abundance of elephants in the country in those early days. The ancient
Sinhalese kings captured and tamed elephants for their use.
Initially all elephants that were captured and tamed were kept by the
king in his stables. Elephants, suitably caparisoned, took part in
ceremonial, cultural and religious pageants and processions. There is
historical, archaeological and anthropological evidence of the
domestication of elephants in this country.
Various methods of capture were employed. Initially capture methods
that were developed locally were employed.
Later the Portuguese and Dutch, brought in new methods of capture.
Gradually the number of elephants captured each year increased because
their imports increased under the Portuguese and the Dutch. The methods
of capture were refined and modified, as time went on.
The first record of elephant capture in Sri Lanka is by Robert Knox
in his book. He says that tame elephants were used to lure elephants
from the wild.
Selected she elephants from the King's stables would be sent into the
jungles. The elephants to be captured were then selected - the choice
being males with tusks. The females are then sent amongst elephants that
are to be captured.
These females, that mingle with the wild elephants, are trained to
return at a given signal. When the females return, the wild elephants
that seem to get love-locked, follow them through the villages, towns
and into a specially constructed paddock.
The King then inspects the elephants and decides which ones are to be
kept. Those whom he does not select are sent back to the jungle.
Though it is difficult to imagine that wild males will follow a
female for such long periods especially through populated areas, it must
be remembered that Knox was writing this in the 17th century.
Another method of capture practiced for some time long ago, was with
the use of a pit. A pit was dug along one of the jungle paths used by
the elephants. This pit was covered with leaves and camouflaged.
Elephants, using paths they were used to, would fall into these pits.
In some instances another pit was dug and left open to deceive the
elephant that would be wary of the open pit and fall into the
camouflaged one.
Sometimes the elephants are driven along these paths, thus making the
chances of their falling in greater. Driving ensured that the elephant,
in its urgency to get away, is not so cautious.
Elephants falling into these pits were noosed and the pit gradually
filled with earth, till the captured elephant could be hauled out by
tamers, etc. The Dutch banned this method of capture because of the
number of injuries caused to the elephants.
Yet another method, again using the paths used by the elephants, was
to tie a noose with its other end tied to a strong tree. The noose was
just a little bigger than the foot of an elephant.
When the elephant stepped on the noose, its leg would get caught.
When the elephant tugged at the rope around its leg, the noose tightened
and the elephant was unable to move and struggled to get free. The
trappers then quickly noosed the other legs and secured the elephant.
In another method of noosing wild elephants, the trapper follows the
elephant chosen for capture, and after getting up to it, slips the noose
around the elephant's back leg. The antlers of a sambar (Cervus
unicolour) or deer (Axis axis) is tied to the other end of the rope. As
soon as the noose is put around the leg of the elephant it bolts away.
At some stage the antlers get entangled with strong roots or trees
and the elephant, has to stop running. Then the trapper and his
assistants, who have been chasing behind the elephant, close in and tie
the rope to a strong tree. Whilst the elephant is thrashing about,
nooses are quickly slipped around its other legs and the animal secured.
Most elephant trappers were Muslims, mainly from the East Coast of
the island. They were called Pannikans or Pannikears. They were expert
elephant trappers who were completely fearless. The Pannikans practised
both methods of elephant trapping as described above. Since the ban on
elephant trapping, the art of noosing has died out amongst the Pannikans.
The kraal method, where a whole herd or more of elephants were driven
into a stockade, ensured that a number of elephants were caught at once.
However, with this method it was likely that more elephants than were
required were also captured. This method necessitated the participation
of a large number of men to drive the elephants into the stockade or
pound as Knox has referred to it. It was also a much more costly
exercise since so much manpower and a strong stockade was needed.
The stockade is also called a kraal or keddah. The word pronounced
craal is thought to be a corruption of the word corral, brought here by
the Portuguese.
This word is also close to the Sinhala word gala, which means stable
or enclosure. Eth gala is the Sinhala term for an elephant stable. A
place where an elephant is tied up for the night is called eth pantiya,
in Sinhala.
Elephants, which are used to assist in the capture and taming of wild
elephants, are called Monitor elephants. They are specially chosen for
their intelligence, maturity and obedience. These elephants must be
strong, have a large frame and a thick neck.
These attributes are necessary to physically control an angry wild
elephant. With its intelligence and maturity, it must be able to
understand what is required of it when capturing or training a wild
elephant. The monitor elephant plays a very important role in the taming
and training of an elephant.
The elephants once in the stockade are agitated and excited. They are
given time to settle down. After a while, tame monitor elephants with
the mahouts riding them, are let into the stockade. One elephant at a
time is chosen to be tied up.
The monitor elephants get on either side of the wild elephant and
control it till the trappers, who are on the ground but close to the
monitor elephant, noose its hind legs and tether it to a tree within the
stockade. All the wild elephants are tethered to trees within the
stockade.
Taming and training wild elephants needs experience, skill, patience
and courage. When taming a wild elephant, it is necessary to break its
wild aggressive attitude to make it obey the commands of its handler or
mahout.
The captured elephant, as soon as it is tethered, gets into a highly
agitated state, straining at its ropes to free itself. It lashes out at
anyone who comes close to it. Elephants can kick equally effectively
with their back legs. They are also adept at throwing logs, etc. with
unerring accuracy, using their trunk.
The objective of training an elephant is to wean it away from its
wild ways and to condition it to obey commands given by its handlers.
The first thing in training an elephant is to calm it down and
condition it to obey commands. The most effective way to calm an
agitated and aggressive elephant is to tie it up and keep it in the
presence of humans and other tame elephants.
In most instances the handlers and trainers keep talking throughout
the day and night, thus preventing the elephant from settling down or
sleeping. At the same time they keep on touching and feeling the animal.
They also stroke it with their hands or the leaves of a small branch.
Sometimes a fire, which the elephant dislikes, is lit to prevent it
from falling asleep. No food is given to the elephant. All these actions
are designed to break the resolve of the elephant.
After a few days, with the loss of sleep coupled with hunger, the
elephant loses its resistance and becomes subdued. When the elephant is
relatively calm, it reconciles itself to accept the food and water,
which is then given.
Training elephants is a specialized art. Elephant trainers of the
past were experts. Elephant trainers or Mahouts learnt the art from
their ancestors. From the days of the kings, elephant training was a
recognized profession, which they were proud of.
Mahouts some times belonged to a caste, which specialised in the
profession. They leant their elephant management from ancient ola
scripts and the experience gained as an apprentice. The ola scripts such
as Gajashastra and Nilashastra mention methods of training elephants.
After capture and taming, the process of training begins. This is
generally when the animal starts accepting food. The chief mahout
positions himself in front of the captive elephant. Two assistants
position themselves on either side, holding two goads directed at the
trunk.
Two men are positioned behind the animal. They keep up a continuous
chant addressing the animal and caressing it all the while. The animal
at first is furious and strikes out in all directions. All these blows
are taken up on the sharp points of the goad. The trunk becomes sore and
the elephant soon ceases to use it offensively.
The objective of training an elephant is to get it to carry out the
commands of its mahout or handler. Training also teaches the elephant
obedience. The mahout uses his goad to keep the elephant in check and to
ensure that it obeys its commands. The sharp end of the goad is jabbed
at sensitive points of the elephant's body, especially the trunk, to
make it obey the commands that it is given.
Gradually the elephant learns to obey the commands of its keeper. It
is essential that only one person give the elephant commands. Otherwise
it leads to confusion in the elephant's mind. The mahout, who is with
the elephant from the time it is captured and its training begins,
generally does this.
The first lesson to be taught is to keep it under control. This is
done with the help of fetters on all legs and a binding rope around the
neck and body. Veteran monitor elephants are also made to flank the new
recruit and to keep him under control.
Often the monitors play their role by lashing with the trunk,
nudging, kicking and beating the newcomer. Their mere presence is an
influence on the wild elephant.
For the first week, the trapped elephant is starved, except for an
occasional drink of water. In any case the wild one is not in a mood to
eat and is in a state of trauma. As it gets weaker, the mahout would
make a pass by offering water. Gradually the elephant will respond to
the approach of the mahout.
Elephants were captured by our ancient kings and used in a number of
ways; for State and royal occasions and temple ceremonies including
Peraheras; to clear jungles; in wars with enemy invaders; for ploughing
in agriculture; for logging operations, in the construction of the large
reservoirs and magnificent edifices most of which are in ruins today; in
trade with other countries and as gifts to kings and potentates of other
countries with which they had friendly relations. Elephants were also
used for sports and recreational purposes.
The first record of the association between man and the elephant in
Sri Lanka was recorded in the 1st Century BC, on an inscription at
Navalar Kulam in Panama Pattu in the Eastern Province, of a religious
benefaction by a prince who was designated Ath Arcaria or Master of the
Elephant Establishment.
The Elephant Establishment was called the Ath panthiya. The ruins of
the ancient cities in Sri Lanka abound with carvings of elephants in
many forms, attesting to the close association between man and the
elephant.
Sinhala literature of the 3rd Century BC indicates that the state
elephant or Mangalahasthi was the elephant on which the king rode. This
elephant was always a tusker and had a special stable called the
hasthisala. The post to which it was tethered was called the alheka.
First description
A 12th Century inscription on a stone seat at Polonnaruwa records
that King Nissanka Malla sat upon it while watching elephant fights.
These fights were staged for the entertainment of nobles.
A rock sculpture of an elephant on the banks of the Mahaweli River
was described thus, by archaeologist H.C.P. Bell: "This piece of animal
sculpture is probably unique in Ceylon. Cut in full round from a rock,
life-size, are the head and shoulders of an elephant whose feet the
river washed when low. The elephant stands in the water, looking
slightly upstream, as though hesitating to cross.
At present the river in semi-flood reaches its eyes. There are signs
of 'sets' for some building's foundations on a boulder adjoining, but no
ruins or inscriptions are known likely to afford a clue to the object of
this solitary tour de force of a skilful sculptor,". Unfortunately this
rock sculpture no longer exists, having been blasted probably by
fishermen dynamiting fish.
Elephants were used on all important ceremonial occasions, especially
where pomp and pageantry were required. The annual Perahera in Kandy,
which dates back nearly 220 years, brings together well over a hundred
elephants that parade the streets during the nights on certain
pre-determined days in July-August each year.
New Year festivities in Sri Lanka feature elephants in various sports
and competitive combat. Elephant fights were a popular form of Sinhala
sport in early times and was called Gaja Keliya.
Being built like a tank, elephants were used in war not only as a
means of transport, but also as an instrument of defence and offence.
They were used to ram barricades and, as to records, "in time of war,
they now and then fix a heavy iron chain to the end of their trunks,
which they whirl around with such agility, as to make it impossible for
an enemy to approach them at that time".
Significant demand
From the earliest of times there had been a significant demand for
Sri Lankan elephants, from other countries. Aelian, quoted by Emmerson
Tennent in 1859, says that the export of elephants from Ceylon to India
had been going on without interruption from the period of the First
Punic War.
India wanted them for use as war elephants, Myanmar as a tribute from
ancient kings, and Egypt probably for both war and ceremonial occasions.
The elephants from Sri Lanka were found to easily adapt to war, and were
considered better than those from the mainland.
Their excellent qualities were well known to the Greeks even as far
back as the 3rd Century BC, in the time of Alexander the Great.
Onescritus, who was an Admiral of the Fleet of Alexander the Great
and probably the first European to describe the trained elephants of
Ceylon, has stated that the elephants from Taprobane (later Ceylon and
then Sri Lanka) "are bigger, more fierce and furious for war service
than those of India".
Greek writers like Megasthenes (circa 300 BC) and Aelian (44AD)
corroborate this. Sixth Century writer Cosmos Indicopleustes says that
elephants from Sri Lanka were highly priced in India for its excellence
in war.
Elephants from Sri Lanka were exported to Kalinga by special boats,
from about 200 BC, from the port of Mantai the present day Mannar. Such
exports are also recorded by Ptolemy in 175 AD.
By this time Sri Lanka had also earned a reputation for skilled
elephant management. The Sinhala kings had special elephant trainers.
They were the Kuruwe people from Kegalle.
Training elephants caught from the wild, for both traditional
purposes and war, was the responsibility of these people.
Even persons (mahouts) who looked after the elephants after their
training, were trained by the Kuruwe people. A brass model of an
elephant with a number of movable joints was used in the training of the
mahouts.
Records show that even though Sri Lanka was exporting a large number
of elephants in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, a number of elephants were
also imported into the country after the 4th Century BC.
This is apart from the gifts that the ruling monarchs of India and
Myanmar, (then Burma) sent from time to time.
The Culavamsa records that during the reign of King Parakrama Bahu
(1153-1186 AD), King Ramana of Myanmar decreed that the practice of
selling elephants from his kingdom for export should henceforth be
stopped.
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(This history will be continued in later articles) |