Elephas Maximus: A Portrait Of The Indian Elephant

_Elephas maximus_ is a rather engaging- if sometimes a bit rambling - portrait of the Indian elephant (author Stephen Alter admits that the more proper common name is Asian Elephant but as he focuses on only _Elephas maximus_ as it is found in India he keeps the name Indian Elephant). Alter sought to tell the natural history of the elephant as well as its human history on the subcontinent, depicting it in history, mythology, religion, art, and literature. As he notes in the prologue, the somewhat tangential order of the chapters follows a series of journeys the author made in different parts of India in 2001-2002. Roughly chronological, each chapter details his experiences with actual elephants, those who live and work with them, and his viewings of elephant art (as well as many asides about elephants in history, legend, and literature) as he visited various national parks, shrines, museums, and festivals throughout India. I learned many interesting facts about elephant biology; the bull elephant experiences a cyclical period of sexual arousal, known as musth. Similar to the rut of a stag, musth is signaled by excretions from glands on either side of the elephant's forehead (in Indian poetry it is described as being a sweet perfume that attracted bees, though the author found it a "sour, oily" odor that attracted swarms of flies). Musth can occur any time of the year, though often afflicts elephants in June as monsoon rains begin. Elephants in musth are very temperamental and prone to fits of rage - tame elephants rarely if ever work during musth - and remain this way from a few weeks up to several months. Alter recounted the many differences between African Elephants (_Loxodonta africana_) and Indian Elephants; African Elephants tend to be taller (up to 12 feet at the shoulder versus the Indian being no larger than 10 feet), heavier (African bulls can weigh over 6 tons; Asian bulls closer to 4 tons), have larger ears, rougher hides, more wrinkled trunks, and a differently shaped skull; Africans have a more extended and tapered head while Asians have a flatter face and a more bulging forehead. The tip of the trunk on an African Elephant has two prehensile "fingers" while the Asian Elephant has but one. In Africa, both male and female elephants posses tusks; in Asia only males have tusks. Even then not all males have them; about 40 percent of all Indian bulls are tuskless and are called makhnas (in fact in some areas, such as Sri Lanka, only 10 percent of all males are tuskers, though this percentage varies a great deal locally). He discounts notions that the Indian elephant is more easily tamed, noting that simply that there is a considerably longer tradition of such training in India than anywhere else in the world. The elephant has a tremendous role in Indian religion. One example is Ganesha or Ganapati, the elephant-headed deity, bearer of joy and good fortune and son of Shiva and Parvati, who is worshipped for ten days every year in temporary shrines called mandals in the state of Maharashrta, at the end of which clay statues of Ganesha are paraded through the streets and immersed in the Arabian Sea. Ganesha is often depicted with a broken tusk and often any elephant that has only one tusk is called a "Ganesha." Literature about elephants -whether factual or fanciful - has long dominated India writings. Gajashastra, or "elephant science," was studied and recorded in ancient texts, themselves based on much older oral traditions, recorded in such pieces as _Hastyayurveda_, a part of the classic Sanskrit canon, and the _Matangalila_, a piece of Gajashastra composed by the Sanskrit poet Nilakantha. The latter book divided elephants into three castes; the bhadra, or noble tusker (suitable for carrying royalty); the manda (slow and dependable ordinary elephants), and the mriga (relatively lean, long-legged, and fleet-footed elephants). These texts have proven to be quite accurate and insightful, showing a real understanding of elephant physiology and training. The elephant has long been a prized target of the hunt or shikar, both before the age of British imperialism and during the days of the British Raj, though by and large elephants were more likely to be captured than to be shot (or as some of the shikaris of the Raj said, the elephant was "something one shot from, not at"), nevertheless solitary tuskers were often misrepresented as rogues and were judged to be fair game. More often attempts were made to catch elephants for use by the military, logging, and by royalty; methods varied greatly from digging a deep hole in the ground and covering it with bamboo, dirt, and grass to mela shikar (riding tame elephants into a wild herd and lassoing selected elephants with grass ropes) to khedah (involving driving herds into large wooden stockades by groups of beaters). Alter spent a great deal of time talking to those who handled elephants. Most tame elephants in India have two or three handlers; the mahout is responsible for the elephant's training and daily maintenance while the charrawallas (fodder cutters) assist him, their jobs being to collect fresh leaves and grass, keep the stables clean, and give the elephant its daily bath (often the charrawallas work as apprentices, aspiring to become mahouts themselves). Elephants are still kept in large numbers in captivity, with India possessing 3,500 captive animals (and 28,000 wild ones out of 50,000 wild elephants in Asia and 16,000 total in captivity). They are still used in a limited way in logging; for years they were vital in this capacity owing to their ability to traverse difficult terrain and move huge loads (now they are still found in forests but often used to patrol against elephant, rhino, and tiger poachers). Many temples and private individuals provide elephants for rent essentially, as their mere presence in weddings is considered auspicious. Rides on the back of elephants are important in tourism, not only for foreign tourists but those from other parts of India.

Stephen Alter is an American author, primarily of non-fiction but also of fiction, who was born in 1956, and raised in India, where he grew up as the son of missionaries. His childhood was primarily spent in the small British Raj-era hill station of Landour in the Lower Western Himalaya. Thanks to a fellow Amazon reviewer who strongly recommended this book, citing it as one of the biggest reasons why he would consider visiting India, I too have thoroughly enjoyed it. It is not actually a crime, but it sure is a strong indicator of society’s (or, at least reader’s) misplaced priorities that my review will be only the fourth one posted, on a book published in 2004, and  Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy (Fifty Shades of Grey Series)  currently has approximately 85,000 reviews posted at Amazon in the USA.For sure, this book is about elephants, of the sub-species that lives in India, “Elephas Maximus.” Alter commences his “portrait,” as the subtitle appropriately indicates, near his childhood home, the Corbett National Park in northern India, near its border with western Nepal. Former colonies normally remove the names of their once colonial masters and even discard the names they provided for their locales and cities. It is a tribute to Jim Corbett, a one-time hunter who turned naturalist and conservationist, that the Indian government has retained his name for one of their national parks. Poaching is a big problem in the park, with ivory being the impetus. All elephants are facing the relentless degradation of their natural habitat through the pressures of human population growth.“I thought you knew where all the elephants lie down,” is one of the haunting, and even taunting verses in Leonard Cohen’s song “Dress Rehearsal Rag.” Of the possible meanings for that line, I always associated the loot that could be obtained from all those ivory tusks in that graveyard. Alter categorically states that there are no “elephant graveyards.” And he relates so much else about them as a species, whose lifespan can reach 70, and that includes their sexuality and their relationship with humans, who have often trapped and trained them. They were the “tanks” of ancient warfare. Hannibal famously used them against Rome, but the Indians also used them against the legions of Alexander the Great. A particular elephant in the Corbett park was named Malin Kali, because the keepers sensed her “Melancholy.” The best time to see elephants: in the dry season, when they are forced to frequent the water holes. Alter also drolly notes some of the many uses of their famous trunk. Elephants are still used at the weddings of the rich.In his depiction of the elephant, Alter provides the reader a wonderful tour-de-force sampling of India itself, traveling its length and breadth. India is famous for its elephant god, Ganesha. He provides a fascinating description of the rather ecumenical festival in Mumbai (Bombay) that is held in its honor, and visits Elephanta Island just off the coast. He travels to wildlife sanctuaries in the deep south, along the border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and reports on the efforts to enlist the indigenous people of the region in protecting the elephants and their habitats. Mammallapuram is the updated name for the temples south of Chennai (Madras) that are dedicated to Ganesha, which I once visited in the days of yore (1971). Atler also goes to the caves at Ajanta, and the palaces near Kota, in Rajasthan. I was surprised to learn that the largest elephant market is near Patna, in Bihar, which he also visits. The book concludes with his tour of the nature preserves along the Brahmaputra River in the far northeast.Alter is very well read in the literature of India, both native and colonial, ranging from the classics such as the  The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Penguin Classics)  through Kipling’s  The Jungle Book (AmazonClassics Edition) . The author covers the works of those less well known (at least to me) from S.H. Prater’s  The Book of Indian Animals  to Salim Ali’s work with the Bombay Natural History Society, and his book,  The Fall of a Sparrow . Woven throughout Alter’s work is also the history of India itself, with the many “regime changes” that have occurred.Overall, a richly informative book, on India in general, with a particularly empathic examination of the elephant’s place in its history, culture, as well as today’s efforts to preserve its beings and its habitats. 6-stars.

Charming read about my favorite creature!