- Likewise the Sinhalese Kings too rode on elephant-back for combat. It was riding the dauntless Royal Elephant Kandula that King Dutugemunu killed Elara the Tamil King in single combat while Elara himself was riding his equally strong elephant. We gather from history that King Kasyapa of Sigiri fame rode on the back of an elephant in the war against his brother Muggallana.____________________________________
by Godwin Witane
(May 04, Cololmbo, Sri Lana Guardian) The three European nations one after another grabbed this island of paradise, and gambolled gleefully in exploiting and plundering the wealth of this land in utmost liberty and callousness. The western countries like Portugal, Netherlands and England are yet to compensate peoples of this land for all their robbery and destruction they were engaged in during their colonised periods.
Their agreement or Convention, made between the British and Kandyan Chiefs who’s Kingdom was never under the sovereignty of an alien nation, they the British, violated with gay abandon. There was most formidable public repugnance to this entirely alien people who were involved in a series of acts of vandalism to bury the historical past of a proud nation with scintillate heritage and culture.
They took great delight blemishing our shining Eastern Culture and religion, which was accepted as supreme by India and the Far Eastern countries of the world. They traded in the unexplored virgin forest coverage of the Hill Country which was covered with rich foliage all too far for detail. They sold parts of it, demarcated into blocks, to the European immigrants at 20 shillings an acre for the planting of coffee. In the year 1847 there came a gentleman of the British fraternity, whom I may call a man without a heart.
He was a person gifted with extraordinary wealth and fortune, the son of a rich father, who was engaged in commerce in a West Indian company. He was enticed by the flamboyant tales related by visitors to this resplendent island, then called Ceylon. He came here to satisfy an inborn desire in him to hunt or kill as many as possible the lords of the forests of this country, the elephant, that were enjoying the undisturbed right of living in the jungles of Sri Lanka, their own paradise.
These tragedies have left an indelible impression of a man’s perverted habits that are inconsistent with traditional religious feelings of a nation associated with "Ahimsa" and steeped in abstaining from harming any living being. Sri Lankans are some of the kindest and friendliest people living in any part of the world. When Buddhism was introduced into this country in 3rd Century B.C. by Arahat Mahinda, the reigning Monarch Devanam Piyatissa embraced Buddhism while on a deer hunt in the wilds of Mihintale jungles.
The essence of Buddhism being "Ahimsa", namely compassion and abstaining from hurting any living being, the noble Monarch soon after proclaimed by an Edict that taking the life of any living being of the jungles was an offence.
He gave ‘Abaya Dana’ or undisputed freedom of living to the denizens of the forest and the birds of the sky. From ancient times the elephant of Sri Lanka were used as a vehicle of transport both by the King and lesser folks. History records that Hannibal used elephants in the Gallic war in Europe.
Likewise the Sinhalese Kings too rode on elephant-back for combat. It was riding the dauntless Royal Elephant Kandula that King Dutugemunu killed Elara the Tamil King in single combat while Elara himself was riding his equally strong elephant. We gather from history that King Kasyapa of Sigiri fame rode on the back of an elephant in the war against his brother Muggallana.
The elephant from the time it was tamed was used to haul heavy loads and draw vehicles. The ancient kings of Lanka who were the architects of the large tanks that supplied water for - paddy cultivation used elephants to build the gigantic tank bunds.
The ceremonial elephant is all prominent in Buddhist processions. The Holy Dalada is annually carried in procession on the back of a lordly tusker.
Samuel Baker, the elephant hunter of the early British period in Ceylon, having studied the wealth of the fauna this country, went back to England for a short period with the express purpose of equipping himself with the necessary weapons of destruction in the form of guns and rifles and ammunition to suit his purpose in declaring war on the Lankan elephants and other animals of the forests of Ceylon. These weapons were manufactured by the gunsmiths according to the specifications and dimensions as directed by him according to his needs.
The invention of the bullet and the cartridge was not in vogue then but came later. It was the muzzle loading gun with a spring that was available at that time. The gun needed to be stuffed with gun powder on top of which the pellets or shots were packed and hammered in over a plug with the help of a ram rod every time a charge was expended over a target. Thus during the time taken for this purpose it enables an animal to find its escape. In order to overcome this, the hunter always has a few spare guns ready, fully loaded. The hunter decides on the strength of the charge according to the size of the animal he targets. If the present day metal bullet and the multi barrelled gun with cartridges were available to him at that time no animal would have been spared to propagate the species to adorn our forests.
An elephant in the wild or in captivity is a pleasing sight. I have seen many a tourist enjoying rides on elephant back when they visit our country. The elephants both small and large cared for at the elephant orphanage at Pinnawala is a great attraction enjoyed by both the locals and foreigners.
The haughty hunter Samuel Baker having returned to England in 1855 after living 6 years in Ceylon had the audacity and vanity to publish a book titled, "The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon" describing the wanton destruction of our elephant population by him illustrating with captivating drawings his mass massacre.
The one shown on this page will amply convince the reading public the brutish force rained on the innocent packs of elephants. According to the description in his book he had spent days and weeks in the unfriendly jungles enjoying homely comfort in well furnished spacious tents stocked with imported tinned meat, fish and fruits and also an assortment of imported spirits to mellow the bodily strain undergone during a day’s outing in the unexplored forests of the Dry Zone.
There had been an army of servants and helpers such as carriers, cooks, trackers and horse keepers numbering sixty to seventy he had employed at each safari. A day’s success at hunting was measured by the number of animals killed in one day not sparing even an orphaned destitute baby elephant that strode behind hugging the mother’s heel. Sometimes this figure reached thirty or forty in number. In his narrative he has shamelessly admitted that when a lactating she elephant was killed he and his brother did not fail to enjoy the spilling milk from the mother’s udder sucking the nipples with their mouths as it was deemed wholesome.
The picture in this article clearly illustrate the heartless cruelty practiced by this alien hunter on freely roaming herds of the champions of our forests. Besides elephants he had killed other game for his food and that of the host of employees who accompanied him throughout his stay in the wilds. A century and half after the massacre of the elephants the present elephant population has swelled so much that the ever declining forest coverage no more sustain the hungry herds that they intrude into village plantations in search of food.
Many an elephant has become victim to angry villager’s gun. The country’s Wild Life Laws, namely the Fauna and Flora Prevention Ordinance prevents the destruction of the denizens of the jungle.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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