As I sit here in the late evening, pen in hand, I begin to recall how Manipur’s kings went about capturing elephants. How did the ancient books of wisdom chronicle the legend-filled lore of elephants, and their stories? We frequently encounter stories in the court chronicle54 about how the kings of Manipur captured elephants. In those days, many elephants lived in the extensive forests of our Meitei homeland. Where else would one come across the documents that contain this knowledge? Which pundits might have them? These are among the questions that I ask today.
Yes, it is indeed true that capturing elephants is no small matter. More than that, venturing into far-off foreign lands to catch an elephant would have definitely been a great challenge during my sovereign father’s life. This is because the places where the elephants were captured were in strange forests. They were not the elephants captured by our monarch in our Meitei homeland, in the Koubru Leikha foothills or the banks of the Loktak Lake. Steering herds of wild elephants in order to capture them would surely have taken some fearsome preparations. Sovereign Father used to go on extended hunts to capture elephants and Gunamani the Brahmin used to go with him. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to hear firsthand Tada Gunamani the Brahmin’s eyewitness accounts.
Once Ta’ Gunamani told me about one of Sovereign Father’s elephant capturing expeditions. All the preparations were made. Everything had been thought of. Word arrived from the scattered villagers awaiting them that a large herd of elephants was approaching. They believed some of these had managed to get away on an earlier occasion. Sovereign Father believed that they would surely get away not this time, as did the experts, hunters and villagers. They were convinced that they would capture some of them at least.
The villagers, it was said, with flaming torches in their hands and armed with long sticks, herded the group of elephants. At times walking in front and sometimes bringing up the rear, was an enormous, handsome stud bull herd-leader, with protruding, gleaming white tusks, masculine and as monumental as a hill, who headed the group. The elephants were herded into a stockade, if that is the term for the circular enclosure. A big, sturdy wooden door that hung over the entrance was lowered. The elephants walked around the large, round camouflaged elephant pit. But the disciplined herd did not stray away from their leader; they stayed close to him.
Tada Gunamani said the elephants might have showered themselves with the red clay of the hills or they might have rolled in the red hill dirt. Their red-tinted hides made them an even more wonderful sight to behold. Those who know elephants tell us that they cannot stand being bitten by flies. Since they are defenseless against flies, they shower dirt on themselves with their trunks to keep the flies off. I think now that it is unfortunate that there were no video cameras then. Even cameras were not common in those days.
How then was the enclosure built? Tada Gunamani said a circular pit was dug inside the round enclosure and covered up with leaves and tree branches. The elephants were then herded into this pit. Weakened from their struggle, the elephants would then be captured from the pit. Thus the kings of Manipur dug elephant pits to trap the elephants and then capture them after tiring them out. If I had done more research into this, I would have known more about the expertise with which the Manipuri kings captured elephants. But I will not go into this any further. Let the young people of later generations look into this. I merely wish to relate the eyewitness accounts of Tada Gunamani.
Beyond the elephant enclosure Sovereign Father would wait on a platform in a huge, tall tree with some of his sharpshooters from the State Military Police. This was not to kill the elephants. They were to be captured alive. What was astonishing was that the elephants wouldn’t go near the staved pit as long as their leader steered clear of it. The leader seemed to be thinking; he seemed to be in deep thought, how do I outsmart these clever humans? Then suddenly, I was told, the leader jumped into the elephant pit. It did not quite reach his height. Standing upright, he formed a bridge with his back, so that the other elephants bounded over him out of the enclosure. Then he sprang up and strode away after easily trampling the carefully constructed enclosure. He walked away with great dignity, like a proud and victorious warrior. Maharaja Churachand’s humiliation and disappointment knew no bounds that day, said Tada Gunamani. It was a major defeat for his elephant hunting expeditions. It was a day when the cleverness of humans was routed by the intelligence of the beasts of the jungle. For it was said Maharaja Churachand had taken an oath that he would not return to the palace wthout capturing an elephant.
But the story does not end there. So like and so close to the fierce, intelligent humans who walk the earth, the story of elephants is not yet over. Their number declines the world over today. Elephant lovers everywhere are thinking hard about how to preserve them. But sadly, all traces of the elephant have disappeared in Manipur, where once there was a long tradition of capturing and rearing them. Instead, there are one or two remaining, rented out for weddings, so now, today, when they are needed, one goes to look for elephants that carry loads and pull logs in Cachar and Assam.
It pleases me very much that the high culture of the Meiteis has bequeathed us from that gilded age, a creative artistic vision of the renowned Beast of Moirang, both from the Ballad of Khongjom, and the stories of the pena55 balladeers with their account of our divine king Maharaja Chandrakirti going to attend the District Summit56 of the Raj. During that event the Beast of Moirang was tethered with his trunk to the barge upon which the divine king and the British held their negotiations – so sing the balladeers.
Right from ancient times, there was a tradition of appointing a Supreme Elephant and a Supreme Pony. The appointments were not made casually. There were rigorous procedures. Colour, disposition, and temperament: all these were scrutinized to determine which animal was qualified to be the Supreme Elephant and the Supreme Pony. Elephants, whose wisdom excelled that of humans, seemed to know this and were said to aspire to the title. The Beast of Moirang was an animal of great renown. It is said that he was left behind as a baby by his mother on the shores of the Loktak lake during the reign of Maharaja the Sovereign Chandrakirti, Little Embracer and Protector of the Hills and Skies. There are many anecdotes about the Beast of Moirang but it was disqualified from being selected the Supreme Elephant as its left tusk was longer than its right. As if resenting that the lesser Kondumba, was appointed the Supreme Elephant it is said that the Beast of Moirang gored him with his tusks.
And the Beast of Tripura! The stories about my sovereign father when it comes to the Beast of Tripura are the most touching of all, although they end in tragedy. His large, beautiful and wise Prince of Flowers, known as the Beast of Tripura, could not be the Supreme Elephant either, as his left tusk, too, was longer than his right. Hence it was said that the Beast of Tripura had but this one unfulfilled desire; I do not know how far this was true. Could an animal think that much? But there are many stories of the Beast of Tripura, even with his legs shackled, goring wild elephants in their stomachs. But the moment my sovereign father cried out, ‘Prince of Flowers!’, he would become submissive and meekly lower his eyes. I do not know why but we loved the Beast of Tripura very much and regarded him as a pet; I still love him even now. The Beast of Tripura had a male offspring, with Madhumalati as the mother I think. Mukundo was his name. Like his father, he was a little hard to handle, a little naughty. The young bull was beautiful and was said to have grown up very fast.
Once they said a person called Leikhomsana was consulted and he cut down Prince of Flower’s two tusks as he had become too unmanageable. It was after his tusks had been cut down that we saw him. Such was his intelligence that whenever the mahout took him out in the middle of Imphal, he would stop and refuse to go any further when he came to the house of our respected Leikhomsana. I asked, Why? Ta’ Khelchandra said, ‘To kill him if he encountered him of course.’ But when Prince of Flowers went rogue and started killing people and destroying houses it became a big problem. Angry villagers even threw acid at his eyes and blinded him. They say Sovereign Father was distraught. Prince of Flowers was brought to Imphal and kept tied up at the forest at Mahabali temple for a long time. I do not know for sure how he died but I heard that he had to be shot and killed. A person who knew what happened said, no, he was shot dead by Maharaja Churachand in an effort to pacify the angry villagers of Kokchai.
There were elephants at the palace for a long, long time. They were rented for weddings and the like. But the truth is that, though there may be a few left, the footprints of the elephant, the royal animal as he was known in Manipur have disappeared.