Vaśālobha: The second technique

The second popular method of catching elephants as mentioned in the Mātaṅgalīlā was the ‘cow seduction’ method (Skt. vaśālobha / vaśāvilobhana / vaśālobhana).

This is described succinctly in a single verse in the Mātaṅgalīlā (Chapter X, v. 7)^[1] –

āptāścarmapaṭairnibaddhajaṭharāḥ kṛtvā vaśāḥ pañcaṣāstaccarmāntaraśāyino gajabhaṭāḥ pāśādibhiḥ saṃyutāḥ /
ārādyūthamathāṅgulipraharaṇaiḥ prāpayya tāḥ pañcaṣān badhniīyuśca gajān javāditi Vaśālobho vaśālobhanāt // (v.7)^[2]

“Five or six reliable females” are driven to a herd by drivers who conceal themselves under covers and are used as decoys in detaching from the herd a corresponding number of males, who are then caught one by one and tied up.^[3]

This method was an ancient and popular method as even the Arthaśātra also refers to a similar method and describes how elephant-catchers locate the elephant-zone.

It says:

“Guards of elephant-forests, aided by elephant keepers, foot-chainers, border guards, foresters and attendants, with their won odours suppressed by the urine and dung of elephants, with their bodies covered with branches of bhallātakī, and moving with five or seven female elephant decoys, should ascertain the size of the herds of elephants, by means of indications provided by sleeping places, foot-prints, dung and damage caused to river banks. They should maintain a record in writing of (every) elephant, (whether) moving in a herd, moving alone, lost from a herd, lord of a herd, (and whether) wild, intoxicated, cub or released from captivity” (Book 2, Chapter 2, v. 10-11).^[4]

The technique is mentioned by different terms the popular one was Vaśābandha mentioned in Mānasollāsa (v. 195-197) and other texts as well only the number of elephants used in the procedure differs. In Arthaśātra this number is five or seven whereas in Mānasollāsa and Gajaśāstra^[5] it is seven to eight mighty and speedy tamed cow-elephants and in Mātaṅgalīlā it is five or six. Thus one may infer that all these texts were composed under local influence and gathering of knowledge from the elephant catchers in their own locality and not merely taken from available textual references. However we may assume that this method needed minimum of five and maximum of eight female elephants for capturing the fresh ones. These female elephants were accompanied by keepers who covered themselves with leaves and carried snares in their hands. They placed the snares for captivating elephants by their trunks slowly approaching the elephants from the direction of the wind. She elephants were thus used for seducing the male elephants and finally captivating them. This is mentioned as a wonderful technique in Mānasollāsa^[6] as this method caused the least harm to the animal and the catchers could very well capture the best of the lot or selective capturing could take place.

Mātaṅgalīlā^[7] refers to the use of different kinds of ointments or solutions which were to be besmeared to the posterior portions of the female elephant for seducing the male elephants.

varāgurukṣīramahīruhatvaṅ-māleyakāleyakaśevyalodhraiḥ /
snātā suśītaiḥ kalaśasthitādbhirvaśā gajānāṃ tu vilobhanī sā // (v.8)^[8]

That means when bathed with varā (some plant), aloes, the bark of trees with milky juices, māleya (cardamoms or other else), kāleyaka (a fragrant wood), the root of andropogon muricatus, and symplocos racemoso, with (mixed in) very cool water in jars, the cow is made seductive to male elephants.

Another verse mentions a different version:

kṣaudrośīranataiśca madyasāhitairharatīndramūtreṇa vā lepoâyaṃ tu vaśāvarāṅganihito vaśyo gajānāṃ varaḥ /
tadvad bilvakakukkuṭāṇḍakakarañjodbhūtabijaistathā lepoâyaṃ ca vaśaṃ nayedgajavarān sammiśritairdhanvanaiḥ // (v. 9)^[9]

…..with honey, the root of andropogon muricatus, and nata (said to be Tabernaemontana coronaria), mixed with wine or with elephant’s urine, such an ointment applied to the hind-quarters of the cow is an excellent seductive of male elephants. Likewise with seeds produced by the wood-apple tree, kukkuṭāṇḍaka (kind of rice), and Pongamia glabra, and with the fruit of Grewia elastic, mixed together, this ointment (applied to cows) will bring noble elephants into subjection.^[10]

Verse 10 refers to another option i.e.:

pathyāvāyasacāṣapatra(/mūtra)nakhamañjiṣṭhāsahāśāribāgośṛṅgāla siteṣupuṅkhasuvahākṣoṇīkadambāmbujaiḥ /
putrañcārinatājaromakhuramūtrādyairmayūrīśikhāmāleyāñjananāgapuṣpamadhubhirvaśyāñjanaṃ yojayet // ^[11]

He (the elephant herdsmen) shall apply (to the cows) a subjugating ointment made of Terminalia chebula (or citrina), fragrant aloes, sugar cane, pattra (a plant with fragrant leaves), Unguis odoratus, madder, sahā (also mentioned in Chapter IX, v. 20 of Mātaṅgalīlā)^[12], śāribā (a creeping plant), gośṛṅga (said to be Acacia arabica), orpiment, sitā (used of various plants), indigo plant, suvahā (various plants), earth, Nauclea cadamba, and lotuses, with putraṃcārin (some kind of plant), nata (also mentioned in verse 9), the hair, hoofs, and urine of goats, and similar things; with Celosia cristata, māleya (like cardamoms), collyrium, nāgapuṣpa (name of various plants), and honey.^[13]

Megasthenes mentions a composite method which includes both trap pen and seductive techniques^[14]. He mentions that the elephant catching techniques of Indians was unique and different from that of the Greeks. The method described by him is as follows:

The hunters having selected a level tract of arid ground dig a trench all round it, enclosing as much space as would suffice to encamp a large army. They make the trench with a breadth of five fathoms and a depth of four. But the earth which they throw out in the process of digging they heap up in mounds both edges of the trench, and use it as a wall. Then they make huts for themselves by excavating the wall on the outer edge of the trench, and in these they leave loopholes, both to admit light, and to enable them to see when their prey approaches and enters the enclosure. They next station some three or four of their best-trained she-elephants within the trap, to which they leave only a single passage by means of a bridge thrown across the trench, the frame-work of which they cover over with earth and a great quantity of straw, to conceal the bridge as much as possible form the wild animals, which might else suspect treachery. The hunters then go out of the way, retiring to the cells which they had made in the earthen wall. Now the wild elephants do not go near inhabited places in the day-time, but during the night-time they wander about everywhere, and feed in herds, following as leader the one who is biggest and boldest, just as cows follows bulls. As soon, then, as they approach the enclose, and hear the cry and catch scent of the females, they rush at full speed in the direction of the fenced ground, and being arrested by the trench move round its edge until they fall in the bridge, along which they force their way into the enclosure. The hunters meanwhile, perceiving the entrance of the wild elephants, hasten, some of them, to take away the bridge, while others, running off to the nearest villages, announce that the elephants are within the trap. The villagers, on hearing the news, mount their most spirited and best-trained, elephants, and as soon as mounted ride off to the trap; but, though they ride up to it, they do not immediately engaged in conflict with the wild elephants, but wait till these are sorely pinched by hunger and tamed by thirst; when they think their strength has been enough weakened, they set up the bridge anew and ride onto the enclosure, when a fierce assault is made by the tame elephants upon those that have been entrapped, and then as might be expected, the wild elephants, through loss of spirit and fitness from hunger, are overpowered. On this the hunters, dismounting from their elephants, bind with fetters the feet of the wild ones, now by this time quite exhausted. Then they instigate the tame ones to beat them with repeated blows, until their sufferings wear them out and they fall to the ground. The hunters meanwhile, standing near them, slip nooses over their necks and mount them while yet lying on the ground. According to Strabo, they then bind the wild one and they tame ones together neck to neck with thongs of raw ox-hide^[15].

Megasthenese said that to prevent them shaking off their riders, or doing mischief otherwise, make with a sharp knife an incision all round their neck, and fasten the noose round in the incision. By means of the wound thus made, they keep their head and neck quite steady: for it they become restive and turn round, the wound is galled by the action of the rope. They shun, therefore, violent movements, and, knowing that they have been vanquished, suffer themselves to baled in fetters by the tame ones. Thus we can get a picture of capturing method by mixing of two, in the Mauryan reign, though it is clear that this technic was also a cruel one.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid., p.89.

[2]:

T. Ganapati Śāstri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha, p. 26.

[3]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p.21.

[4]:

R.P. Kangle. tr. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, Part II, Bombay: University of Bombay, 1963, p.68.

[5]:

Shri Mantramurti K.S. Subrahmanyaśāstri. ed. &tr. (in Tamil), Gajaśāstra [Gaja-śāstram] of Pālakāpya muni with extracts from other works and Coloured Illustrations, p.61.

[6]:

Nalini Sadhale & Y.L. Nene. ‘On Elephants in Manasollasa-1.Characteristics, Habitat, Methods of Capturing and Training’, Reproduction from Asian Agri-History, Vol.8, No.1, 2004, pp.5-25

[7]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, Chapter X, v. 8, 9 and 10, pp.89-90.

[8]:

T. Ganapati Śāstri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha, p. 27.

[9]:

Ibid.

[10]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p. 89.

[11]:

T. Ganapati Śāstri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha, p. 27.

[12]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p. 85 and T. Ganapati Śāstri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha,, p. 25.

[13]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, pp. 89-90.

[14]:

John W. McCrinddle. Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian, New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2015, pp. 218-220.

[15]:

John W. McCrinddle. Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian, p. 91.