The debate that elephants should not be caught and kept in captivity is reviewed. There is a brief description of Kerala temple festivals, a drama in which elephants are the main actors, writes C V Bhuvaneswari.
I stood with wonder, when I saw for the first time, Arjun, a massive elephant, breaking the coconut offered by my grandmother with his own feet and then finding out the pieces with the help of his trunk. I can recall the details in my mind’s eye, for I was much impressed by the way he was using his body parts for survival.
Later when I came to be aware that any new experience is a new piece of knowledge, Arjun breaking the coconut became a new knowledge superimposed over other. It was a new knowledge for me, a greater knowledge, for I didn’t learn it from books, but by really watching it, a complete knowledge where there are no loopholes.
I want my granddaughter unborn, to see the sight of an elephant breaking a coconut, when she becomes a reality. Her knowledge of life and the universe will suffer if she hasn’t seen it, if we elders do not provide an opportunity for that.
But will the child be able to see it? No more, perhaps. It is likely that the elephants may disappear altogether from Malayali community’s socio-cultural life, homes, public places and society. The argument is that man has used his superior intelligence to capture and control this animal with superior power; he has turned the animal into his slave, put him in chains, in chains he shall die, never freed from captivity. Constant torture, starvation, punishment etc alone have made this creature obedient to man; they are controlled by fear, they are most of the time given to undertake tasks above their capacity. Should this continue? This is the million dollar Elephant Question: Should they be in captivity or should they not?
We have no way of knowing what the animal himself thinks about the issue. A fully grown tusker with certain special features and statistics is the star attraction and the hero of a Kerala pooram. His transformation from the wild beast to a heavenly creature overnight has to be seen to believe it. The elephants are decorated with nettippattom. It masks the front portion of the elephant with gold (certain rich owners make nettippatttom in real gold for their elephants.) He is also assigned the duty of carrying the thidampu, a structure with the deity’s figure engraved in it. Thus it is not man, but the beast who is assigned the duty of carrying the temple deity on his back on the crucial day.
The elephants have a real baggage to carry that day. Two men stand on the elephant, keep on fanning the venchamaram and alavattom. They are followed by those who hold the umbrellas. The elephants are adorned with huge bright coloured silk umbrellas: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange etc. When the procession has progressed to some length, there begins the kudamattom, the exchange of the umbrellas between the elephants. In the dusk, silk umbrellas of various hues travel swiftly in the air, as if chunnaris are flying in the sky; they merge and part and again merge. The sight is unique, even ethereal.
The panchavadyam, five percussions played together, unique to Kerala, have a highly sensuous, mesmerizing impact; it refuses to leave our auditory senses even after days together. The elephants in unison move their ears responding to the rhythm of the instruments. It is surprising that they stand in the same position for a whole night, not even moving their legs, the picture of patience, tolerance, and stoicism.
The lamps in their thalam lighten the faces of the girls who carry it. They emerge slowly, followed by the percussion artists and the elephants. The procession moves, the common man interspersing with all these. The smell of sandal paste, and kalabham, the fragrance of flowers, the smell of wicks burning in oil, all fill the air. Men and animals get elevated to the world of god.
This is an occasion where the contradictions come together and merge: the divine joins the animal, the refined, melodious panchavadyam ending up in the noisy firework, the carnival of the common man existing with the sanctity of the temple affairs. Men and children wait till fireworks are over. Children have to take leave of their favourite elephants.
“Till we meet next year, the same time, the same place.” Or shall we have to ask like Mohanlal “If you are not there, what is there for me to celebrate?”
Malayalam has a set of vocabulary and phrases with elephants as the central metaphor, anachantam (overall grace), anappaka (elephant’s revenge), anakkarryam (serious matter) etc. Large body of information and research material exist on elephants in Kerala, which constitute fascinating elephant lore. It shows the love and respect the community hold towards the heroes of the temple festivals and how seriously they had taken the whole business of rearing the elephant. With the disappearance of the elephants, a whole lot of elephant lore will disappear, becomes obsolete, irrelevant, pass into oblivion.
