In the long history of Man, stretching back to his emergence from the mists of pre-history, a most remarkable and amazing feature has been his mastery of the elephant, the largest of creatures on land, which have been domesticated and trained to serve him. Pre-historic Man was in awe of the giant mastodon and the great woolly mammoth, the early cousin of the modern elephant. He hunted them for the plentiful meat and sinew it provided, for the large bones and thick hides, which gave him shelter, and for the shiny ivory it yielded for making his adornments. This bounty came in good use for him to survive in the harsh cold climate.

With the passage of time man learnt to capture, train and adopt the elephant to serve his needs. In India and other lands of Asia, where Hindu and Buddhist religion found roots and flourished, the elephant found a special place in the link with religion. The Hindu God of Learning, Wisdom and Destroyer of Evil - Lord Ganapati or Ganesha - has the head of an elephant. The famous mount or "Vahan" of Lord Indra, the God of Rain is Erawat - the celestial white elephant, normally depicted with quadruple tusks and at times with multiple trunks. Our great epic the "Mahabharat" has many interesting references about elephants. As such, the elephant is held in veneration by many, is generally by far the most popular of all animals and loved by all children.

It is depicted as a motif for decoration, in various styles and idioms in innumerable temples, palaces and monuments throughout India and also in other Asian lands. The monolithic black-stone elephant of the Kailash cave at Ellora is very famous, as are the elephant studies in Mughal miniature paintings. But the best renderings of elephants are to be found in the Kotah Miniatures Paintings where the large animal is drawn with rare beauty, flowing strokes and rhythmic grace showing the power and energy of this big animal.

The Indian elephant, known in zoological nomenclature as elephas maximus indicus is the second largest creature in the animal kingdom, after its bigger African cousin - loxodonta africana. A big bull tusker can weigh between 4 - 6 tons, stands around 10 - 11 feet tall at its shoulders, and can carry tusks of around 8 - 8 feet long weighing up to 100 lbs. Each. It is known for its highly sensitive and keen senses of hearing and smell, for its well developed intelligence which makes it obey human commands and is credited with a long memory. However its eyesight is poor. Elephants walk at speed of around 4 m.p.h., but can "run" in short bursts of speeds up to 15 m.p.h., which is best described as an ambling shuffle. An angry elephant is a terrifying sight to behold and when it decides to charge an enemy, only a brave person with presence of mind can escape being gored and trampled to death. Generally the elephant is a well behaved and a gentle animal and is known to live long even in captivity. In its natural habitat it is constantly feeding or browsing. It consumes around 500 lbs. of feed in captivity which can be fodder, green grass, tree leaves, sugar-cane, wheat cakes or "roth" mixed with ghee, gur and a bit of salt. They love water and are strong swimmers. In the heat they spray themselves with water brought out of their body via their trunks. The trunk of an elephant is a sensitive organ and is also very strong.

In India the elephant has been traditionally associated with royalty from days immemorial. It was used by the king for ceremonial purposes, as a royal mount and as a mobile fortress in war. They were stabled in "pheelkhanas", with a mahout and 3 or 4 "charkattas" or grass-cutters assigned to each animal. It was their job to look after the animal, to feed and keep him well. From the earliest times, the elephant formed a separate corps of the fighting army in India. A war elephant was specially trained and fitted out with heavy plate armour or chain-mail, carrying up to 4 armed warriors in the armoured howdah. Wielding a sabre held in its trunk, the mighty war elephant was meant to strike terror in the hearts of the foe and un-nerve the enemy cavalry horses. The first well know European to come face to face with Indian war elephants was Alexander the Great. Later his Satrap, Saleukos Nikator got soundly defeated by Chandragupta Maurya- who had over 500 war elephants in his army. The Romans got a taste of African elephants when Hannibal descended across the Alps into the Italian mainland and gave them a string of bitter defeats. Famous Romans, like Pompey and Julius Caesar used African elephants as the prized showpieces in their Triumphs held in Rome. The great Mughal Emperor Akbar was particularly fond of elephants and took delight in riding even a musth elephant all alone. He went on expeditions to catch wild ones, maintained a large number of them in his royal stables and used them in war. Emperor Jehangir records in his diary that there were 12,000 elephants maintained by the Emperor. Hindu Kings and Princes, and high officials and dignitaries of the realm also kept them. A staggering number of around 100,000 such elephants were kept and maintained in Hindustan in those days! Today there are only about 25,000 wild ones in India!

A whole separate branch of science and medical knowledge came in existence in the matter of looking after, care and in the treatment of ailments of these animals, all carefully researched and codified and written as treatises. These books were in Sanskrit, Hindi and later also in Persian. The war elephant held its own on the battlefield till the 16th century. The advent of gunpowder, cannon and firearms spelt its doom. Thereafter the elephant remained largely for ceremonial purposes as the mighty mount for a Prince. Of course, it remained an excellent haulier, was extensively used in shikar and sometimes also as an executioner. A royal procession consisting of many gaily decorated, richly caparisoned and adorned elephants, bearing flags, nakkaras, emblems of royalty and honours like the Mahi-o=Maratib, with the nobles and the King - was a rare and wonderful sight. I have had the privilege to have taken part in such royal processions riding in a silver howdah atop a big tusker. The Kotah state maintained around 25 elephants. The grandest animals in our stables as far as I can remember were two big tuskers - "Chanchalgaj" and "Gadhe Bahadur". I have ridden the latter in my marriage procession and been on it several times in shikar. It was a brave elephant a who stood unflinchingly like a rock even when the tiger charged it! Such elephants even in those days were a rarity and hard to train. Alas - with the change of times all these things have now disappeared and only remain as good memories.

It is my pleasure to write this introduction to the book "Jhools in the Dust" written by Mrs. Greta Palmer. I have known her now for around 8-9 years. She first got in touch with me when she was starting to do her book. How she learnt about me is a bit of a mystery. She had several queries and I tried to answer then, satisfactorily I hope. She has been to Kota several times since 1993 and it was a pleasure to have her and her husband. Mrs Palmer has been very pains-taking and diligent in her efforts to visit far flung places and ferret out information, which is now getting to be increasing rare. The final work has turned out to be very interesting and shall prove to be instructive to all persons who have a love of history and the Indian elephant.