Elephant Lore in Myth & Legend

Even today the elephant has a prominent place in Buddhism unlike other animals. It is the only animal possessed of grace to carry the sacred reliquary containing the 'Danta-dhatu' (Tooth-relic) of the Buddha, in the annual Esala Perahera in Kandy.

All Buddhist temples follow the same procedure in choosing an elephant to carry the relics in procession, as no major Buddhist procession is complete without at least a single elephant, ornately caparisoned to walk majestically through the streets.

"The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant,
The saplings reeling on the path he trod;
Declare his might: our lord the elephant, Chief of the ways of God."
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

The life and habitat of the elephant are provocative of wonder and demand our reverence, since both its evolution and influence upon mankind have always been found to be most fascinating, bewitching, enchanting, charming and delightful.



The interesting roles it has played in myths, legends, religion, history, folklore and war, notwithstanding its recent prominence in politics; its association with man and the services rendered to him from remote antiquity; the symbolic splendour of its colossal body, let alone flesh, to be balanced on bones; its place in circuses and menageries, in wildlife sanctuaries and zoological gardens and, above all, its graceful and majestic appearance have been well attested, expressed and documented in various works of art and literature down the ages.

The elephant belongs to the animal order Proboscidea (possessed of a trunk) and to the sub-order of ungulates (hoofed digitigrade mammals). The  two species of elephants now extinct are the mammoth (Elephas premiginius) and the mastodon (Elephas odontos).

The two existing species are the Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Elephas africanus).

Ivory

The elephants found in Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Indo-China, Malaya, Myanmar, Borneo, Sumatra and other regions of South-East Asia belong to the Asiatic species, and have comparatively flat foreheads, small ears and shorter tusks. Their average height rarely exceeds 10 feet, the female being somewhat shorter than the male.

They have a thick, grey and wrinkled skin, and their upper incisors (tusks), grow to a considerable length, sometimes exceeding 6 feet, and are a source of ivory valued for its hardness and durability.

The elephants found in the dense forests of Africa, from Gambia to Ethiopia, towards the south of the Union of South Africa, in the forests of the Guinea Coast, the inner Congo Basin, and from the Niger to the Ubangai-Congo North-South Divide, belong to the African species.

They have  remarkable physical features which differ chiefly from their Asiatic kind: the most notable being the huge size of their ears which, when in repose, completely cover their shoulders. Their skin is somewhat dark-grey in colour and their disposition is fierce.

Hence it is difficult to domesticate them nor to harness them for work, unlike the Asiatic elephants, as they are by nature morose and recalcitrant to obey the command of man.

The most remarkable organ of the elephant is its trunk which is long, flexible and prehensile. It is also its nose. At the bottom end of the trunk lies  the nostril (finger), and it is so sharp that an elephant can pick up small objects and even a needle from the ground quite easily.

The trunk serves dual purposes, i.e. to convey food and water to the mouth and to heave heavy logs at lumber sites, and haul them to places where transport facilities are available. When heavy duty machinery cannot cope with such laborious task, the elephant comes into the scene.

The elephants are herbivorous and therefore, they have no canine teeth. In the young the tusks are tipped with a kind of enamel but it soon wears  away, and then they consist of ivory along. The feet are broad and have 5 toes in each foot of which the middle toe is the largest. Although the elephants chiefly subsist on roots, twigs, leaves and young shoots, they relish to eat fruits, specially the 'divul' (Feronia elephantum), and bananas are their delicacy.