{"id":118650,"date":"2021-09-27T17:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T00:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118650"},"modified":"2021-10-13T14:05:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T21:05:48","slug":"the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/27\/the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ELEPHANT IN SRI LANKA Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

REVISED\n12.10.21 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a strong elephant culture in ancient Sri Lanka. Sri\nLanka has had a long association with elephants and as a result a lasting\naffinity has developed between the two, observed Jayantha Jayewardene .  Knowledge of elephants\u201d was one\nof the skills listed in the medieval Sinhala literature. . The variations in\nphysical appearance amongst elephants were noticed and recorded in ancient\nSinhala manuscripts. There are ten such groups or \u2018castes’ noted Jayantha\nJayawardene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants are\nmentioned in the Sinhala literature. D.V. Seneviratne has written on Elephants\nin Sinhala Literature. (Sri Lanka\nWildlife Bulletin<\/em> No. 27-30. 1973.) Dhanesh Wisumperuma has written on\nElephants in “Sand\u0113\u015ba K\u0101vyas”. (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka<\/em> New Series, Vol. 57 (2011)<\/a>, pp. 71-94.)\nDue to Covid restrictions I have not been able to look at these two items and\nconvey their contents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elephants\nlived in the forests of Sri Lanka. There were special forest reserves for them.\nPtolemy identifies the area between Sri Pada that includes the Walawe Ganga\nbasin and the Rakwana hills to the sea, as being \u2018Elephantorum Hic Sunt\u2019, an\nelephant feeding ground.  Merlin Peiris,\nformer Professor of Western classics, had brought this to the attention of\nAshley de Vos. The first description of the capture of elephants is by Pliny in\n40 AD. The information   was provided by\nthe Sinhalese ambassador to the court of the Emperor Claudius. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.In the ancient period Sri Lanka had an extensive area under\nforest cover and elephants were widely distributed from sea level to the\nhighest mountain ranges.  They were found\nin all parts of the country except in the southwestern coastal belt from Chilaw\nto Matara, and in the Jaffna Peninsula in the north. They were in the dry\nzone, in the lowland wet zone as well as in the cold damp Montane forests.  Elephants were captured when they ventured\ninto the forests in the lower plains.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants were very important in ancient Sri Lanka. They were used\nin a variety of ways and were greatly valued and protected. D\u2019Oyly writing in 1809 said that All elephants are\nconsidered the property of the Crown. There were laws designed to protect these\nanimals. Killing an elephant, specially tuskers and large elephants was\nconsidered a despicable crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elephant\nwas a royal animal. The king rode on an elephant, presumably in processions.\nThe elephant on which the king rode was known Mangalahasthi. This elephant was\nalways a tusker and had a special stable called the Hasthisala. The post to\nwhich it was tethered was called Atheka (Seneviratne, 1973).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were elephant stables in the palace during the Anuradhapura\nperiod. The Mahavamsa speaks of the \u2018chief elephant\nof the king’s stable\u2019 in the time of King Devanampiya Tissa. An inscription\nat Navalar Kulam in Panama Pattu in the Eastern Province, dated to 1 BC refers\nto Ath Arcaria or Master of the Elephant establishment. The Elephant establishment\nwas called the Ath panthiya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tradition continued. The palace of the Udarata king had an\nelephant stable. In 1706 king Narendrasinha had over 300 tuskers in his\nstables.  The elephant stable in the   Palace was under the Gajanayake Nilame. This\nwas a high ranking position.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nof the chieftains who helped the Sinhala kings to capture elephants were\nallowed to keep an elephant or two for themselves. The Portuguese and the Dutch\ncontinued this practice. This is how the long Sri Lankan tradition of private\nownership of elephants started, observed Jayewardene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephant fights called Gaja Keliya were staged for the\nentertainment of nobles.  An inscription\non a stone seat at Polonnaruwa records that King Nissanka Malla sat upon it while watching elephant fights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants\nwere given as gifts to the kings of countries that had friendly relations with\nthe Sinhala kings and with whom they traded. Elephants\nwere used on all important ceremonial occasions, especially where pomp and\npageantry were required. Gaily caparisoned elephants went in temple peraheras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ceylon elephant\nwas an important item of trade in ancient Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka elephant was\nhighly regarded abroad. Onesicritus (360- 290 BC) said the elephants in Sri\nLanka    were bigger and more warlike,\nthan those found in India. Aelian (175 \u2013 235 AD) records that the\nelephants in Sri Lanka were physically stronger and bigger in appearance than\nthose in India, also more intelligent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cosmos Indicopleustes (d.550 AD) said that the elephant from Sri\nLanka was highly priced in India for its excellence in war. The Ceylon elephant\nwas highly prized in India for its special docile qualities, said another\ncommentator.   Aelian   said that they were exported to India in\nspecial boats. Ptolemy said Mantota was the main port\nfor the export of elephants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian traveler Athanasius Nikitin (1470) who visited India\nin 1466 and Add-er-Razzak (1442) Persian ambassador in India also spoke of the\ntrade in elephants between Calicut and Ceylon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants\nwere used in building construction. The Mahavamsa records the use of elephants\nto stamp down large stones for the foundation of the Mah\u0101th\u016bpa. The elephant\u2019s feet\nwere covered with leather to prevent injury from the stones. Elephants transported materials to\nconstruction sites. The giant stones used in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa\nconsecutions would have been moved into place by elephants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants\nwere also used for the construction of the large reservoirs. They were used for\ntransport and haulage, too and for logging operations and to clear jungles. They\nwere also sometimes used for ploughing the land.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants were also used in battle. Being built like a tank,\nelephants were used in war not only as a means of transport but also as a war\nweapon. Ives observed “in time of war, they now and then fix a heavy iron\nchain to the end of their trunks, which they whirl around with such agility, as\nto make it impossible for an enemy to approach them at that time”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants were used to ram barricades.  Dutugemunu used the elephant Kandula to break\ndown the wall around Vijitapura.   Initially he was not put into protective gear\nand the enemy poured boiling tar on him. Then the Sinhala forces put armor on\nKandula, with\na well softened buffalo hide underneath the armor and sent him back. Kandula\nbroke down the wall. In the final battle Dutugemunu and Elara faced each other\non elephants, Dutugemunu on Kandula. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of elephants in battle did\nnot end there. <\/em>In 1586, Rajasingha I led an army which included a force of 2,200\nhighly trained elephants for fighting and for other services, and laid siege on\nthe Portuguese fort in Colombo. This number may not be accurate, but the records\nconfirm that elephants were used in this battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The elephant was used for capital punishment In\nthe Udarata kingdom. Robert Knox (1681) said that <\/em>“that\nthe King makes use of elephants as executioners: they will run their teeth\n<\/p>\n\n\n

[tusks]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

through the body, and then tear it in pieces, and throw it limb for\nlimb. They have a sharp iron with a socket with three edges, which they put on\ntheir teeth at such times. Henry Charles Sirr (1850) also said that elephants\nwere used as executioners of criminals in the Udarata kingdom.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka had a reputation for skilled elephant management.The Sinhala kings had special elephant\ntrainers. In the Udarata kingdom the capture and training of elephants   came under the supervision of the Kuruwe\nLekam. The Kuruwe trained elephants both for  \npeace time purposes and also for war. They trained the mahouts too.  Kuruwe clan had their own Muhandiram. Kuruwe\nwas not a high caste group. In the 20th<\/sup> century, the Kuruwe were\nliving in Kegalle. A brass model of an elephant with a number of movable joints\nwas used in the training of the mahouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There was also the \u2018Ath-bandina-vidane\u2019,\nmaster of the hunt, \u2018Ath- Panthiya-Aratchies\u2019, Overseers, the \u2018Ath-Bandina\nRala\u2019, who supervised the \u2018Badinno\u2019, noosers \u2018Vel-Kareya\u2019, cutters of lianas,\n\u2018Vaga-kareyo\u2019, scouts who located the herds, \u2018Panikkayo\u2019, officers over the  Kurunayake\u2019 mahouts, \u2018Dureyo\u2019, who assist in\ntying the tamed animals, \u2018Pannayo\u2019, foragers, \u2018Diyakum- kareyo\u2019, suppliers of\nwater, \u2018Gaja-Pattiya\u2019 or elephant veterinary officer, \u2018Oli\u2019, who collect\ningredients for medicines, \u2018Thundugattene Hulavalliyo\u2019, Headmen of the Rodi\ncaste who were the rope makers or \u2018Thondugattene Hulavalliyo\u2019, Headmen of the\nRodi caste who were the rope makers or \u2018Thondu-gattene-karayo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a\nspecific body of knowledge relating to elephant care. Status of elephant\nmedicine in ancient Sri Lanka was very high due to the value placed on\nelephants.   King Buddhadasa appointed medical practitioners to\nattend to his elephants, his horses and his army<\/em>\u201d. <\/em>Physicians for elephants, horses as\nwell as humans, accompanied the king and his convoy to war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Sinhala palm leaf manuscripts describing the veterinary\naspects of elephant management are preserved in the Colombo Museum. The\nNational Museum of Ceylon has placed on permanent record, a national science,\nwhich had reached a high level of development under the Sinhala kings, although\nit is but little known today even among the mahouts, said<\/em> P.E.P.\nDeraniyagala (1952) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manuscripts\nheld in the National Museum included<\/p>\n\n\n\n

i Hasti\nYoga Satakaya<\/em>\u201d and Hasti Silpaya<\/em>\u201d (a Sanskrit work with a verbatim\ntranslation in to Sinhala), describes the medicines, their preparations and the\ndiseases they cure; remedies for eye diseases, gastric, bowel and bilious\ndisorders, skin diseases, ointments, conditioning medicines and cautery;\nprescriptions for oils, ointments, pastes, powders, pills, etc.; sores and\nulcers; a glossary of medical terms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ii The Ath Veda Pota<\/em>\u201d,\na Sanskrit work with a verbatim translation in to Sinhala, describes medicines\nfor adults as well as calves. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

iii Thun\nAlinta Vedakam\u201d<\/em> and Gaja Yoga Ratnaya<\/em>\u201d describes medicines administered to\nensure affection and fidelity. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

iv Ali Torana\nPota<\/em>\u201d describes ophthalmic medicines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

v Sri Yoga Sataka<\/em>\u201d\ndescribes diseases, their symptoms and treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

vi Hasti Cikitsava<\/em>\u201d describes\nvarious medicines, drugs, pills used in the treatment of elephants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to these manuscripts, the type of diseases and\nconditions that existed in elephants in ancient Sri Lanka include, skin and\nfoot conditions (wounds, ulcers, abscesses), wounds on genital organs, worm\neating\u201d of tusks, worms in ulcers, eczema, gunshot wounds, eye diseases,\ngastric, bowel and bilious disorders, said Asoka Dangolla and Indira Silva. (Continued)\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 12.10.21 There was a strong elephant culture in ancient Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has had a long association with elephants and as a result a lasting affinity has developed between the two, observed Jayantha Jayewardene .  Knowledge of elephants\u201d was one of the skills listed in the medieval Sinhala literature. . The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}