{"id":118726,"date":"2021-09-29T17:40:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T00:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118726"},"modified":"2021-10-13T13:51:07","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T20:51:07","slug":"the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/29\/the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ELEPHANT IN SRI LANKA Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

REVISED 12.10.21 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the\nPortuguese captured the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka they found a\nflourishing export trade in elephants, developed   over the centuries by the Sinhala king. The\nPortuguese  , who had never seen an elephant\nbefore,  found that the Ceylon elephant\nwas superior, compared to elephants from other countries, and traders were\nprepared to pay twice or even up to four times for them. The Portuguese quickly\ngot involved in the elephant export trade. They established a special unit\ncalled the Elephant Hunt for the capture and export of elephants. When the\nDutch defeated the Portuguese in 1655, the Elephant Hunt had nearly 3 000 men\nin its employ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elephants were caught in two kraals. The person in charge was called the\nGajanayake. The Portuguese maintained an annual demand of\n37 elephants for export from the kraals. Elephants were led, tied to tame ones,\nto the Jaffna peninsula and to Kayts for export. The Portuguese used Kayts for\nthe export of elephants.  The elephants\nwere driven into the Jaffna peninsula by a shallow ford that separated it from\nthe mainland. This was later bridged and given the name Elephant Pass.  It is most unlikely that the Portuguese would\nhave created this route. This would have been the existing trade route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1507 the Viceroy of India sent a gift of a\nsmall elephant, imported from Ceylon, to King Manuel of Portugal. After seven\nyears in Lisbon this elephant, named Annone, was presented to Pope Leo X and\nmoved to Rome. Annone, lived in Rome for three years but died after developing\nstomach trouble due to the variety of food given to it by visitors and\nadmirers. There is a memorial in Rome to Annone the first elephant in the\nVatican (Hulugalle, 1969). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch  who    also had never seen an elephant before   found, in their turn,  that the elephant trade  was a lucrative one. They too latched on to\nit. They increased the size of the Elephant\nHunt so as to increase their income through the export of elephants\n(Jayewardene, 1994). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ceylon elephant continued to be greatly\ndesired in India for war and as draught animals. Bengal and Golconda Muslim\nmerchants  came along to purchase them. The sales took place in the port\nof Kayts , reported the Dutch .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the colonial occupation of the country,\nelephants are known to have been captured in the<\/em> Avissawella, Negombo,\nMannar, Kalutara, Matara, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Trincomalee,\nBatticaloa, Buttala area.  During the Dutch period, an elephant had even\nfound its way into the Colombo Fort. This shows that the elephants were in a\nhabit of moving down from the thick forested hills in search of food and water.\nElephants were usually captured when\nthey ventured into the forests in the lower plains.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch had to obtain permission from the  Udarata king to capture elephants which were\nwithin the Udarata kingdom. The king agreed to the Dutch capturing 20 to 30\nanimals each year, but the Dutch constantly exceeded this figure, capturing\naround 150 each year and 200 in one year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the 100 year duration of  Dutch \nrule, the possible total number of elephants exported is a staggering 11,250 specimens in their prime, said\nAshley de Vos.. The trade brought in an average of 100,000 Guilders per year.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephants were caught in kraals, in the Matara\nDissawa area and Udawalawe. A group of persons known as\nBaddenas were sent into the jungles to look for suitable herds of elephants to\nbe captured in kraals .When the herds were sighted, the Dissawa of the area was\ninformed, and he in turn gave instructions to hold a kraal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kraal was an elaborate and specialized  operation which was carried out by a caste of\npeople  whose occupation it was\u201d. There\nwas  a Master of the Hunt who was\nresponsible for the whole organization. Those engaged in capturing and training\nelephants held land  in payment for their\nwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A very large stable had been built to house the\ncaptured elephants, , with a Gajanayake in charge, in Matara. These\nstables  were at the site of the present\nKachcheri. In 1697 there were 97 elephants in these stables.  The animals were bathed twice a day in a\nnearby river, very likely the Nilwala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The animals  that were for sale, were marched northwards to\nJaffna by land along the coastal road to Mannar or Kayts. They were marched\ntied to tame elephants. This route had a special problem, many rivers  had to be crossed. This was a problem. The elephants\nwere shipped in large flat bottom wooden barges, ten at a time, to the  Coromandel Coast in India. The elephants were\noften sold before they were properly trained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elephant caravan  had to pass through the Udarata Kingdom on\ntheir way and special permission had to be sought for this transit.   One notes that under Sinhala rule, elephants\nwould not have had to    do  this long trek from Matara to Jaffna. They\nwould have been captured higher up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johann Wolfgang\nHeydt was a German who worked for the VOC in Sri Lanka . He spent over two\nyears in Sri Lanka. Heydt has \ngiven a detail description of how the Dutch elephant trap\u201d works. Near\nthe gates, on which entrance they have ready some tame elephants, which must as\nif show the way, and must enter first.  These then the wild ones follow,\nuntil they are brought into an open space provided with 2 or 3 drop-gates, on\nwhich men sit hidden. As soon as these see that the wild elephants have been\nbrought through by the tame ones, they cut the Rottangs (rattans) which hold up\nthe gate, so that they fall and enclose the place. Then they take again the\ntame elephants and let them show the way to the wild ones, until they lead each\ninto a very long and narrow path, so that he cannot turn around unless he is\nvery small: and so he goes along this passage until he comes to the end of it,\nand as soon as he is there, they quickly push in some tree trunks behind him,\nso that he cannot now go backwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then they try to tie him up, and bring him\nslowly forward, between two tame elephants. If now he will not go forward, they\nset a third behind him, which must belabour him with his trunk in a most\npitiful manner, so that he begins to weep and to cry out: and afterwards they\nbring him into a place destined for this purpose, and look after him well, and\nseek daily, now with kindness, now with beatings, to make him tame, seeing that\nthey have a quite extraordinary intelligence, more than other beasts\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heydt has an equally interesting account of\nwhat happens to the elephant after capture and the need to partially train them\nprior to export. He refers to Matara fort as being full of trees, bushes and\ncoconut gardens, which are very abundant, not only inside the fort but outside\nas well, creating the impression of a forest totally hiding the buildings .a\nlarge number are brought to Matara yearly, or at least every 2 years. The\nelephants are placed for safety between trees, which are planted 4 by 4\nconveniently for this, where they can be better disciplined than in the\nstables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heydt then goes on to describe how animals are\nmeasured, examined and priced for the international market and then escorted\ntied to tame elephants to the point of shipment. While I was still in Colombo,\nthere came thus (tied) beside tame elephants yearly 50 \u2013 60 which had been\ntaken here, to be sent from there to the Coromandel Coast and Bengal: since the\nKings there buy them from the Company to use them for their pomp. They remained\nusually for 3 to 4 weeks near Colombo before they went further, and first must\nbe measured, according to the custom there, both in height and length. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this measuring attention was given also to\nthe tail, whether it were complete; and had also its tufts complete, on which\nare hairs, very thick which are about 4 or at the most 6 inches long, hanging down\non both sides of the tufts .When selling or purchasing these beasts one also\nlooks very closely at the ears, seeing that in the case of many these are\nhighly torn. Those  which have good ears\nand tails, and no visible defects, are highly valued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impression\ngiven by  such description, specially for\ngullible readers is that the  Dutch,  due to their innate superiority, were able to\nimprove on the elephant capturing methods used for  centuries by the Sinhalese. This is most\nunlikely. The Dutch were not familiar with elephants and knew nothing\nabout  capturing them  and shipping them. What they did was to latch\non to the  trade established by the  Sinhala kings, \nuse the  methods developed by\nthem, use the  trained groups who  were traditionally engaged in this work and\ntake the profits.( continued)\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS REVISED 12.10.21 When the Portuguese captured the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka they found a flourishing export trade in elephants, developed   over the centuries by the Sinhala king. The Portuguese  , who had never seen an elephant before,  found that the Ceylon elephant was superior, compared to elephants from other countries, and traders […]<\/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-118726","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\/118726","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=118726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}