International Conference on Asian Elephants in Culture & Nature
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Item Elephants and Kingship: A Study of the Arthaśāstra(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Mandal, K.K.Taxation system and standing army are two important sources of Indian kingship. One cannot imagine a state without taxation system and standing army. In any case the maintenance of a large professional army was made because of a well-organised taxation system just as the collection of taxes was facilitated because of the existence of a coercive authority. This interconnection is stressed by Kauṭilya. The Arthaśāstra enumerates seven elements (saptāṅga) of the state such as svāmī, amātya, janapada, durga, kośa, daṇḍa and mitra, suggesting thereby daṇḍa is an important element, consisting of soldiers comprising infantry, chariots, elephants and cavalry. This manifests that the elephant is deeply embedded in Indian kingship. At the same time, elephants symbolise wealth and power. Elephants are large, possibly visible sign of military potential, of a substantial living force at the command of a king. The display of war elephants in the royal procession was, after all, the display of war assets. It has effects upon other kings who were always assessing the strengths of the various assets of their neighbours. It is a reflection of war elephant as repertoire of Indian kingship. Kauṭilya assumes elephant forests (hastivana) on the border of the king, guarded by forest people (aṭavī). The Arthaśāstra refers to the superintendent of the elephant (hastyadhyakṣa) and the elephants guards (nāgavanāpāla) are to protect them and prescribes death punishment for those who kill elephants. The text mentions the superintendent of elephants shall protect elephant forests (nāgavana) located near hills, rivers, lakes or marshy land with the help of elephant-forest wardens (nāgavanāpāla). The elephant forest wardens assisted by elephant keepers (hastipaka), foot-chainers (pādapāśika), border guards (saimika), forest ranger (vanacaraka) and attendants (pārikarmika). These, disguising their scent with the urine and dung of elephants and concealing themselves with the branches of trees, should move with five or seven female elephant decoys to “find out the size of elephant herds by means of signs provided by sleeping places, foot-prints, dung and damage caused to riverbanks” and “keep a written record of elephants— those moving in herds, those moving alone, those driven from a herd and leaders of herds, as well as those that are dangerous in must, the youngsters and those released from captivity.” They should capture elephants that, in the judgement of elephant trainers (anikastha), have excellent marks and demeanor. The text mentions that victory (in battle) for a king depends principally on elephants. For, elephants, being possessed of very big-sized bodies and being capable of life-destroying activities, pound the troops, battle-arrays, fortresses and camps of enemies. In fact, kings are drawn to elephants because of their size which is useful to kings as a signifier of the superlative character of kingship. Keeping all these things in mind the paper attempts to delineate the relationship between elephants and kingship on the basis of Arthaśāstra.Item Role of Hastyadhyakṣa in Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Hota, K.N.In Kauṭilya’s administration the King was the Head of State and he appointed officials through a stringent procedure of selection, and only the deserving ones were finally selected and appointed by him for different positions. Officials are appointed for smooth running of the state. Some of the officials are known as adhyakṣas or the superintendents. Nearly 30 adhyakṣas were appointed in Kauṭilya’s administration. These superintendents are so competent that they are generally endowed with the excellences of the ministers and they are appointed to work according to their expertise. One of those superintendents is Hastyadhyakṣa who discharges his duty while looking after the entire set up of elephants. He ensured the following: the security of elephants in forest, their comfortable stay in stables constructed with as per their size in length, width and height, proper food with prescribed quantity as per their body size, regular health checkup by physicians, scheduled time for food, bath, sleep etc, proper training given for simple riding or for war, making them engaged as per different seasons and the rest. He should also see that elephants are caught only in summer season, cubs are generally not caught and if caught, they are meant for play only. However, he gets the work done by various attendants like security guards, trainers, cooks, drivers, foot-chainers and so on. Moreover, there is a provision of penalty for those who do not perform their duties as have been assigned to them. It appears that Hastyadhyakṣa is quite conversant with all related issues of elephants. This paper makes an attempt to highlight the duties of the said official while looking after the elephants envisaged in Arthaśāstra (AŚ), and it may see some reflections in this regard with other Sanskrit literary work like Śukranīti, Hastyāyurveda etc.