Vāribandha: The first technique

Here we find the use of a trap for capture. Mātaṅgalīlā mentions about the size of this pen as having a length and breadth of around a kośa (elsewhere also mentioned as koca one and onehalf miles).

To make a circular enclosure the pen is surrounded with stout trees, the ground inside this enclosure is then dug, and also a ditch hard to cross on the outside is excavated, one shall construct with bamboos, etc., a lane opening outward, (beginning) between two fences arranged on either side of the entrance, and gradually becoming wider (as it leads out)^[1] –

krośaprāyavitānadīrghamahitā vārī nikhātairidhairvṛkṣādyaiḥ parito vṛtiṃ ca parikhāṃ kṛtvā bahirdustarām /
dvārasyobhayotaḥ prakalpitavṛtidvandvāntarasthāṃ kramād vistīrṇāṃ ca bahirmukhāṃ vitanuyādvīthīṃ ca veṇvādibhiḥ // (v. 2)^[2]

Raising aloft and fastening a great door panel, (sharp-) edged, at the entrance inside the trap pen, making it very stout with wooden pillars on this side and on that, he shall deposit sugar cane, etc., there and then, rounding up the elephants with drums, etc., he shall drive the frightened animals near the trap (by the bamboo pathway leading to the gate), and then quickly cut the cords holding the top of the bolt (so that it shall drop and fasten the door).

Mātaṅgalīlā speaks thus–

uddhṛtyopari sannibadhya ca kavāṭaṃ dvāri vāryantare dārustambhamitastataśca suiḍhaṃ kṛtvā sadhāraṃ bahum /
ikṣvādyatra vinikṣipedatha gajān saṃvārya bhoryāditastrastānatra niveśya cārgalaśikhāpāśāṃśca bhindyād drutam // (v. 3)^[3]

Once the elephants enter the trap pen then the experts get involved in the process of selection and those with auspicious signs are separated from the inauspicious ones. The latter were released from the pen as these were not considered fit for possession.

The texts mentions thus:

kakṣyābandhakakuntaveṇusṛṇipāśādyairyutā hastipāstasmin dvitradinaṃ pratīkṣya punarabhyetyāśu vāryantaram /
stambhopāntagatā gajānapi gṛhītvopāyavanto iḍhaṃ sambadhyātra guṇānvitānatha bahiryūthaṃ ca vidrāvayet // (v. 4)^[4]

Elephant herdsmen were provided with thick ropes or girth fastenings, spears, bamboo (sticks), goad hooks, fetters, etc. for capturing these elephants. They had to wait on location for two or three days before entering the trap pen. Then they inspected the elephants and selected the ones with desirable qualities and secured them firmly. After making the final selection they allowed the rest of the elephants which were considered as not desirable or inauspicious ones to leave the trap pen.

The text also mentions the art of capture in details, for example how to tie an elephant once it is selected for possession, and so on. It mentions that gently and swiftly the expert shall bind the elephants with rather gentle though firm bonds around the girth, at the neck, and at the hind parts, and also bind the iron foot bonds upon them on the two (hind) feet. Then having fastened very long and stout ropes in front. These selected prime elephants in the trap pen then were taken to the local destination by elephant herders after loosening the fetter behind.

kakṣyābhāge ca kaṇṭhe mṛdutaraiḍhapāśairgajaṃ cāru tūrṇaṃ badhnīyāccāparāṅge nigaḷanamapi tatpādayorapyamīṣu /
badhvā pāśānathātyāyatasuiḍhatarānagrato hastipendrairākṛṣyākṛṣya mandaṃ gamayatu śithilīkṛtya pāścātyapāśam // (v. 5)^[5]

Selected elephants were finally led to the camp using the finely trained and trustworthy elephants. This ‘trap pen’ method is now called kheddaḥ or kheda.

stambhāt stambhāntaraṃ tvevaṃ yāpayitvā śanairgajān /
śālāṃ praveśayedanyairāptairdantivaraiḥ saha // (v. 6)^[6]

Gajaśāstra (Chapter 6, v.22-28)^[7] and Mānasollāsa (Chapter 3, v. 188-194)^[8] describe this method i.e. Vāribandha in detail. Once the elephant herds were located they were to be allured with fresh and tender grass and other tasty food like Sallakī (Boswelliaserrata), plantain-stems, nectar like sweet sugarcane-pieces, delicious lotus bulbs, black pepper, tender leaves of pippala (Ficus religiosa), priyāla, green leaves of bamboo and such other substances. Once the elephants locate the spot of trap pen and start visiting the opening of the trap pen should be closed. These two texts also mention about an expert Vārikarmana who was a trap pen designer or maker. He should carefully leave there a place for entrance for the elephants at the ground level. The entrance was blocked by the expert and he also concealed himself using big trees. This technique is called Vāribandha (v.29)^[9].

The khedda [kheddaḥ] or kheda method of capturing wild elephants was practiced in different parts of the Indian subcontinent to avoid heavy expenditure on hiring or keeping tame elephants. Meghasthenes (400 BCE) was the first to record a clear account of the kheddaḥ method of capturing elephants as practiced in northern India. Capturing elephants in a kheddaḥ was once a royal sport in India and this ancient game of the kings is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. Mānasollāsa indicates that in twelfth century khedda method was known and practiced. It is interesting to note that in 12^th century CE the taming and catching of elephants had become quite a refined art. Kalacuri inscriptions mention king Vallabharāja^[10] who completely reduced elephants in Vindhyan region by capturing them. On the other hand Kheddaḥ [khedda] scenes are graphically depicted in the Konarka temple. In one scene men mounted on horses and tame elephants and on foot are driving a herd of wild elephants by beating drums, blowing trumpets and shouting. The herd consists mostly of elephant female with calves. The herd has been driven into a large enclosure. Thus King Narasiṃgha Deva, the Ganga ruler of Orissa, who built the sun temple of Konarka, in his reign khedda [kheddaḥ] technique of catching of elephants was practiced in the 13th century CE.^[11]

[8. An in Mayurbhanj, Odisha. Courtesy: Debabrata Swain]

[9. Elephants being driven into stockade for catching, Sun temple, Konarka, Odisha, 13^th century CE. Courtesy: Debabrata Swain]

[10. An elephant in the stockade, Sun temple, Konarka, Odisha, 13th century CE. Courtesy: Debabrata Swain]

The most popular method of catching elephants in early India thus was the trap pen method (Skt. Vārī and in modern vernacular kheddaḥ). Franklin Edgerton suspects that there is least one textual corruption in the first line of stanza 2 of Mātaṅgalīlā, which seems to describe the pen or pound as a kos (about a mile and a half) in diameter. This figure certainly cannot refer to the pen proper, the Vārī or modern kheddaḥ, but rather to the’surround’.

That he quotes selections from Sanderson’s long description^[12] which helps to make clear the meaning of our text:

“The scouts having found a herd … the hunters are halted within a mile, when half of them file off to the right and half to the left. Along these diverging lines, which are to meet beyond the herd and enclose it, two men are left at every fifty yards or so as a guard. The surround when completed is often six or eight miles in circumstance [which would be two koś or more in diameter] …. [Guards see to it that the enclosed herd does not escape from this’surround’ until the pen proper has been built.] The construction of the kheddaḥ, inside the large circle, is commenced as soon as the elephants are surrounded. … This is formed of stout uprights about twelve feet in height, arranged in a circle of from twenty to fifty yards in diameter. …. An entrance of four yards in width is left for ingress of the herd …. To guide the elephants to the gate, two lines of strong palisades are run out from it to perhaps fifty yards across their commencement, which may be a hundred yards or so from the gate. When the herd is once within the funnel-shaped approach, it is easily driven forward by the beaters closing in from behind. The gate is made very strong, and is studded with iron spikes on the inside. It is slung by rope-hinges to a cross-beam, and is dropped by the rope being cut as soon as the elephants have entered. Inside, around the foot of the palisade, a ditch is generally dug…to deter the elephants from trying the stockade…. [When all is ready] a smaller interior circle is formed by commencing at the ends of the guiding wings of the kheddaḥ and posting the men until the elephants are again surrounded. They are then driven forward towards the kheddaḥ, and when near it the men close in from all sides with shouts and shots, and the elephants generally enter the trap without hesitation. … After the elephants have been impounded … the tame elephants are admitted with their mahouts upon the neck of each, and a rope-tier seated behind.”

What becomes clear is that the pen had a rope-slung gate which was closed by cutting the rope.^[13]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Franklin Edgerton. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p.87.

[2]:

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

[3]:

Franklin Edgerton. Tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p. 88 and T. Ganapati Sastri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha, p. 26.

[4]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p. 88 and T. Ganapati Śāstri. ed. The Mātaṅgalīlā of Nīlakaṇṭha, p. 26.

[5]:

Ibid., p. 88 and p. 26, respectively.

[6]:

Ibid., pp. 88-89 and p. 26, respectively.

[7]:

Shri Mantramurti K.S. Subrahmanyaśāstri. ed. &tr. (in Tamil), Gajaśāstra [Gaja-śāstram] of Pālakāpya muni with extracts from other works and Coloured Illustrations, pp. 60-61.

[8]:

Gajanan K. Shrigondekar. ed. Mānasollāsa, Vol.1, Baroda: Central Library, 1925, pp. 45-46.

[9]:

ShriMantramurti K.S. Subrahmanyaśāstri. ed. &tr. (in Tamil), Gajaśāstra [Gaja-śāstram] of Pālakāpya muni with extracts from other works and Coloured Illustrations, pp. 60-61.

[10]:

CII, Vol.4, Pt. II. Kugda Stone Inscription of Pṛthvīdeva II: year 893, pp.446-449; Raipur Museum Stone Inscription of Pṛthvīdeva II, pp.436-442 and Akattara Stone Inscription of Ratnadeva II: pp. 430-436.

[11]:

Debabrata Swain. ‘Elephants in Art, Architecture and History of Orissa’, Orissa Review, 2008 (June), pp.4547.

[12]:

G.P. Sandorson. Thirteen Years among the Wild Beasts of India, Elinburg: John Grant, 1912, pp.71 ff.

[13]:

Franklin Edgerton. tr. The Elephant-Lore of the Hindus, p.20.