The Elephant tamers of India
This piece information is taken from the text “INDIKA of Megasthenes”
The Elephant Hunters of India - The making of war-elephants
The Hunt:
The major strength of Indian forces during olden days are the ferocious war-elephants. It would be apt that the war-elephants are seen as an precious ornament in war, and the strength of the king is determined based on the number of war-elephants he owns. So, the elephants are a major driving factor in turning the tides of war. This article deals about the process of hunting the wild elephants and taming them (later part is partially given in the text).
A round trench of 5 or 6 stadia (1stadia = 185 m, stadia is an ancient Greek measurement of length) is dug deep in the ground, and over this a narrow bridge is thrown which access to the enclosure. Into this enclosure 3 or 4 best trained female elephants are introduced. The men themselves lie in ambush in concealed huts (these huts are made on the inner side of the trench). The wild male elephants enter the trench through the narrow bridge picking the scent of the female elephants (elephants have heightened sense of smell) during night. Once they enter the trench men close the entrance. Now the wild elephants have nowhere to go. Elephants are weakened by making them starve. After one or two days strongest of the tame fighting elephants are introduced, they fight out with the wild ones. When the wild ones are now overcome with fatigue, the boldest of the drivers dismount unobserved, and each man creeps under his own elephant (the tamed elephant won’t step over his drives as it gets more attached to the driver in due course and there are stories that the war-elephants stood guard to their drivers in battlefield when the drivers are injured and fall to the ground), and from this position creeps under the belly of the wild elephant and ties his feet together. When this is done they incite the tame ones to beat those whose feet are tied till they fall to the ground.
Then the drivers bind the wild ones with the tame one together neck to neck with raw ox-hide. To prevent the wild elephants from shaking off those who tries mount it, the drivers make cuts all round the wild elephants neck and then put thongs of leather into the incisions, so that pain obliges them to submit it their fetter and remain quite. The caught elephant are then taken to the stables where they are tied neck to a firm pillar and feet one to another, and tame them by hunger.
The art of Taming :
After some time the strength of the elephant is restored with green reeds and grass. They next teach the elephant to be obedient, which they effect by soothing them, some by coaxing words, and others by songs and the music of drums (elephants are a great fan to music especially drums). Only a few are found difficult to tame as elephants are naturally mild and gentle beasts. The elephants captured long for freedom thirsts for blood, and binding it in chains make it more exasperate. It won’t submit to a master i.e a driver. The only way of subduing the anger is by filling the elephants stomach. They sing to it their native melodies and soothe it with music of an instrument known as skindapsos which has 4 strings.
The wounds are cured in the following manner: they treat the wound with lukewarm water to promote the tissue growth. After this they apply butter all over the wound. If the wounds are deep the a piece of pork, hot but still retaining the blood is inserted in the wound. As the elephant grow older they won’t be able to see clearly, so cow’s milk is injected into the eye on opening the eyelid the elephants gets delighted being able to see clearly, and are sensible of the benefit like human beings.
