The ivory king

In all the magnificent ceremonials and pageants of the Orient, the elephant forms a prominent feature: and even to-day we are delighted and amused with the impressive spectacle a herd presents as it marches in the procession of the circus; the dignified bearing of the animals, their measured tread, and large stature, all adding to the grandeur of the scene.

That this was recognized in olden times, is well known; and, whenever a king desired to show his power and riches to the best advantage, the elephant was employed. Bernier has given a vivid description of some of the processions of the East.

“I cannot avoid,” he says, “dwelling on this pompous procession of the seraglio. It strongly arrested my attention during the late march, and I feel delight in recalling it to my memory. Stretch imagination to its utmost limits, and you can conceive no exhibition more grand and imposing than when Rochinara Begum (Aurengzebe’s sister), mounted on a stupendous Pegu elephant, and seated in a mik-dember, blazing with gold and azure, is followed by five or six other elephants, with mik-dembers nearly as resplendent as her own, and filled with ladies attached to her household. Close to the princess are the chief eunuchs, richly adorned and finely mounted, each with a cane in his hand; and, surrounding her elephant, a troop of female servants from Tartary and Kashmire, fantastically attired, and riding handsome pad-horses. Besides these attendants, are several eunuchs on horseback, accompanied by a multitude of pagys, or lackeys, on foot, with large canes, who advance a great way before the princess, both to the right and to the left, for the purpose of clearing the road, and driving before them every intruder. Immediately behind Rochinara Begum’s retinue appears a principal lady of the court, mounted and attended much in the same manner as the princess. This lady is followed by a third; she by a fourth; and so on, until fifteen or sixteen females of quality pass, with a grandeur of appearance, equipage, and retinue, more or less proportionate to their rank, pay, and office. There is something very impressive of state and royalty in the march of these sixty or more elephants; in their solemn and, as it were, measured steps; in the splendor of their mik-dembers, and the brilliant and innumerable followers in attendance. And if I had not regarded this display of magnificence with a sort of philosophical indifference, I should have been apt to be carried away by the similar flights of imagination as inspire most of the Indian poets, when they represent the elephants as carrying so many goddesses, concealed from the vulgar gaze.”

For many years after the capture of India by the British, elephants were employed by the princes and nobles; but now their use is prohibited in Calcutta, on account of the many accidents that resulted; and in British India the animal is rarely seen on occasions of ceremony, except at the courts of native princes who still have some authority.

Elephants were employed in the ceremonies of the Juggernaut; five elephants preceding the car containing the idol, “bearing towering flags, dressed in crimson caparisons, and having bells hanging to their caparisons.”

At the time when the two sons of Tippoo were received as hostages by Lord Cornwallis, they approached his lordship mounted on a richly ornamented elephant, and seated in a silver howdah.

According to a contemporaneous writer, at the Vizier Ally’s wedding, 1795, “The procession was grand beyond conception. It consisted of about twelve hundred elephants, richly caparisoned, drawn up in a regular line, like a regiment of soldiers. About one hundred elephants in the centre had howdahs, or castles, covered with silver: in the midst of these appeared the nabob, mounted on an uncommonly large elephant, within a howdah covered with gold, richly set with precious stones.”

The Moguls were particularly fond of parade and display, and daily they had an elephant dress-parade; all their finest elephants being marched before them, harnessed in the most magnificent manner.

The elephant-parades at the court of Aurengzebe have been described by Bernier, and those of the court of Jehanghir by Sir Thomas Rowe. The latter says, “His greatest elephants were brought before him, some of which, being lord elephants, had their chains, bells, and furniture of gold and silver, attended with gilt banners and flags; and eight or ten elephants waiting on him, clothed in gold, silver, and silk. Thus passed about twelve companies, most richly furnished; the first elephant having all the plates on his head and breast set with rubies and emeralds, being a beast of a wonderful stature and beauty. They all bowed down before the king.”

The secret of this adulation was not any particular respect to the king, as might be expected from this description. When the elephant passed its royal master, the driver perched upon its neck pricked him so violently with his instrument, that the elephant bent its knee, raised its trunk, and roared lustily with pain.

All kings and potentates could not afford to keep up such an expensive establishment; and many were the tricks that were resorted to, to make a few elephants afford a great display. When Mr. Bell, the famous traveller, visited Pekin, he was entertained by the officials with what was intended to be a magnificent display of elephants. “After dinner,” he says, “we saw the huge elephants, richly caparisoned in gold and silver stuffs. Each had a driver. We stood about an hour admiring these sagacious animals, who, passing before us at equal distances, returned again behind the stables, and so on, round and round, till there seemed to be no end to the procession. The plot, however, was discovered by the features and dress of the riders: the chief keeper told us there were only sixty of them.”

An Eastern account of the embassy from Shah Rohk, son of Tamerlane, to the emperor of China, describes the grand feast in China on New-Year’s Day, A.D. 1420. “The elephants were adorned with a magnificence not to be expressed, with silver seats and standards, and armed men upon their backs. Fifty of them carried the musicians: these were preceded or followed by fifty thousand, in profound silence and order.” Undoubtedly the same mystification was adopted with the ambassadors as in the case of Mr. Bell, only it was more successful.

In Rome, Julius Cæsar and his successors employed the elephant to draw them in gorgeous chariots. When Cæsar celebrated his victories in Gaul, elephants were used to carry torches to illuminate the processions, which generally took place after dark. In celebrating his African triumphs, the captured spoils were borne upon chariots of ivory; and when Pompey returned from his victories in Africa, he was borne in a chariot that was drawn by four elephants of the largest size, to the very gates of Rome.

Gibbon thus describes the triumph of Aurelian (A.D. 274):—

“The pomp was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the north, the east, and the south. They were followed by one thousand six hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the amphitheatre. The triumphal car of Aurelian on this memorable occasion (it had formerly been used by a Gothic king) was drawn either by four stags or by four elephants.”

The most remarkable display of elephants in modern times, is undoubtedly that made in honor of the visit of the Prince of Wales to India. At Kandy, Ceylon, he witnessed the wonderful festival of Perahara, in which long processions of these noble animals passed in review, caparisoned in the most costly manner, bearing howdahs that defy description. One of the latter, which was presented to him at Jyepore, was of silver, and a work of art in all its parts. At Agra, the prince, mounted upon a huge elephant, covered with costly trappings, passed in between a double line of elephants, bearing the native princes and men of rank, probably the most imposing spectacle of his visit. At the rehearsal of the Perahara at Kandy, the prince fed the great elephants with sugar-cane, and with his suite, and numbers of ladies and gentlemen, reviewed the host of giants. (See Plate XX.)

At Lahore his Royal Highness was greeted with salutations from long lines of gayly bedecked elephants, which, with crowds of natives, extended for a great distance along the drive: and finally, at Colombo, two huge pachyderms were stationed, face to face, upon opposite sides of the road, bearing upon their backs various ornamentations and placards of welcome; and, when the prince appeared, the huge animals raised their trunks aloft, and joined them over the road, bearing aloft a crown. Under this living arch, the austere company of guests and guards passed. (See Plate XIX.)

Many of the conquests and ceremonies of the early days are commemorated on medals, described in Chap. XX.; and fine bass-reliefs are in existence, telling the story of the wonderful deeds in which the elephant took no minor part.