Elephants in India

Elephants are revered in Hindu culture, and 80% of India is Hindu, so way over  1 billion just in this country.  A favorite god is Ganesh, the elephant god.  One of the only gods depicted with an animal head, he’s usually shown with 4-10 arms, and using a rat as his vehicle.   He holds (among other things) a rope and an axe:  the axe to cut off attachments to worldly things and rope to pull his devotees nearer to the truth.  By riding the rat, he’s able to go even small places to do these things.  But I’m convinced most other elephants in India would give their trunks to join the circus. They’ve been worked like slaves here forever.

“Forts” in India are really just palaces with lots of protection.  During construction of Jaipur’s Amber Fort below,  two elephants had to stand on the roof of the structure for days, just to see if it could take the weight required for gigantic chandeliers that were to be installed.   

Amber Fort Jaipur

Check out the silver urn.  It's about 6 feet high and holds 900 gallons.  Elephants were used to carry water from the Ganges river in 4 of these massive containers for hundreds of miles over land so they could be loaded on ships and taken to London.  There was no way the Maharaja of Jaipur was going to drink water from the Thames river during his trip).  Once loaded on board, the weight was too much for the boat, so they just threw 2 of them over the side in a hurry – silver urns and all.

Elephant Memorial at Fatepur Sikri.
Fields of mustard in bloom in
the background.

The Mughal emperor Akbar  actually had a large sandstone ring in his courtyard at Fatepur Sikri where tied his wise elephant.  When people were to be brought to justice , he would hear the case, then put them before the elephant.  If the elephant trampled them, so be it, they must have deserved to die.  If the elephant spared them, they were allowed to just walk away.  When the elephant died, the emperor built a memorial for him.  This showplace of a palace from around 1500 was occupied for less than 12 years because of a severe drought, his HQ had to be moved back to Agra around 15 KM away.

In wars, elephants often led the charge, which sometimes backfired because if the enemy spooked the lead elephants, they would sometimes turn and trample their own army.  Because elephants were used to break down the gates of a fort, most doors are styled with multiple knobby things on the front.  They look decorative now but they were originally fashioned with very sharp and long pointed ends to keep the elephants from busting through the doors.