Note on the Must (Musth) condition of elephants

Note: this text is extracted from Book XII, chapter 72

“Then he was brought in, and all beheld him smeared with the blood that flowed from his wounds, begrimed with the dust of battle, bound with cords, and reeling, like a mad elephant tied up, that is stained with the fluid that flows from his temples mixed with the vermilion painting on his cheek”

The mast (must, or musth) state of the elephant plays a large part in the metaphor and hyperbolical descriptions of Hindu poets. Special mention is usually made of the ichor or mada, a dark oily matter which exudes from the temporal pores of the elephant when in a must state.

In Vol. I, p. 182, we read of the King of Vatsa being “followed by huge elephants raining streams of ichor that seemed like moving peaks of the Vindhya range accompanying him out of affection.”

In Vol. II, pp. 92 and 93, we have similar references:

“Though his elephants drank the waters of the Godāvarī... they seemed to discharge them again sevenfold in the form of ichor.”

The must condition and the mada itself also appear in punning descriptions of the hero’s strength or degree of passion. (See Vol. II, p. 125n⁴, and Vol. III, p. 214n¹)

Owing to the kindness of Major Stanley Flower, introduced to me by Dr Chalmers Mitchell, I am able to add some very interesting notes on must elephants. The Indian elephant has four (not two, as often stated) glands on the forehead, an upper and a lower pair. In Rājputāna the mahouts call the upper gland “Daan,” and the lower gland “Khamūka.” Whether the discharge from these glands, or pores, is necessarily coincident with the animal being must, or in a state of sexual excitement, is a matter on which observers disagree. The most recent, and reliable, article on the subject is that by J. C. C. Wilson in the Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. xxviii, 1922, pp. 1128-1129. He points out that it is not necessary for the bull to be must to reproduce his kind, and that an immature bull which has never been must can get a calf. Must elephants are most dangerous, both to other elephants and to man, so much so that they have to be chained up and starved till their condition becomes normal again. Luckily the glands of the temple swell some days before the discharge commences, and thus give warning of the approaching condition. If a cow in season can be provided for the bull, his must is reduced, but he will drive off, or even gore, a cow not in season. A curious fact is that the cow herself, when in season, has a slight discharge from the glands between the eye and ear similar to that of the bull.

A healthy bull should come on must at least once a year. Among wild tuskers the state usually occurs in December or January, while in tame herds, which are worked to about the end of February, must does not come on till later, after the elephants have had time to rest and get in good condition again. The mahouts, a most unscrupulous set of men, sometimes quiet the must condition by the use of opium and other drugs. The ichor, or mada, is looked upon as a great perquisite, and is sold by the mahout, sometimes for high prices, as an aphrodisiac for human consumption.

Reference might also be made to the following: G. H. Evans, A Treatise on Elephants: Their Treatment in Health and Disease, Rangoon, 1901; ditto, Elephants and their Diseases, Rangoon, 1910; and S. E. Wilmot, The Life of an Elephant, Ldn., 1912.—n.m.p.