That this was recognized in olden times, is well known; and, whenever a king desired to show his power and riches to the best advantage, the elephant was employed. Bernier has given a vivid description of some of the processions of the East.
“I cannot avoid,” he says, “dwelling on this pompous procession of the seraglio. It strongly arrested my attention during the late march, and I feel delight in recalling it to my memory. Stretch imagination to its utmost limits, and you can conceive no exhibition more grand and imposing than when Rochinara Begum (Aurengzebe’s sister), mounted on a stupendous Pegu elephant, and seated in a mik-dember, blazing with gold and azure, is followed by five or six other elephants, with mik-dembers nearly as resplendent as her own, and filled with ladies attached to her household. Close to the princess are the chief eunuchs, richly adorned and finely mounted, each with a cane in his hand; and, surrounding her elephant, a troop of female servants from Tartary and Kashmire, fantastically attired, and riding handsome pad-horses. Besides these attendants, are several eunuchs on horseback, accompanied by a multitude of pagys, or lackeys, on foot, with large canes, who advance a great way before the princess, both to the right and to the left, for the purpose of clearing the road, and driving before them every intruder. Immediately behind Rochinara Begum’s retinue appears a principal lady of the court, mounted and attended much in the same manner as the princess. This lady is followed by a third; she by a fourth; and so on, until fifteen or sixteen females of quality pass, with a grandeur of appearance, equipage, and retinue, more or less proportionate to their rank, pay, and office. There is something very impressive of state and royalty in the march of these sixty or more elephants; in their solemn and, as it were, measured steps; in the splendor of their mik-dembers, and the brilliant and innumerable followers in attendance. And if I had not regarded this display of magnificence with a sort of philosophical indifference, I should have been apt to be carried away by the similar flights of imagination as inspire most of the Indian poets, when they represent the elephants as carrying so many goddesses, concealed from the vulgar gaze.”
For many years after the capture of India by the British, elephants were employed by the princes and nobles; but now their use is prohibited in Calcutta, on account of the many accidents that resulted; and in British India the animal is rarely seen on occasions of ceremony, except at the courts of native princes who still have some authority.
Elephants were employed in the ceremonies of the Juggernaut; five elephants preceding the car containing the idol, “bearing towering flags, dressed in crimson caparisons, and having bells hanging to their caparisons.”
At the time when the two sons of Tippoo were received as hostages by Lord Cornwallis, they approached his lordship mounted on a richly ornamented elephant, and seated in a silver howdah.
According to a contemporaneous writer, at the Vizier Ally’s wedding, 1795, “The procession was grand beyond conception. It consisted of about twelve hundred elephants, richly caparisoned, drawn up in a regular line, like a regiment of soldiers. About one hundred elephants in the centre had howdahs, or castles, covered with silver: in the midst of these appeared the nabob, mounted on an uncommonly large elephant, within a howdah covered with gold, richly set with precious stones.”
The Moguls were particularly fond of parade and display, and daily they had an elephant dress-parade; all their finest elephants being marched before them, harnessed in the most magnificent manner.
The elephant-parades at the court of Aurengzebe have been described by Bernier, and those of the court of Jehanghir by Sir Thomas Rowe. The latter says, “His greatest elephants were brought before him, some of which, being lord elephants, had their chains, bells, and furniture of gold and silver, attended with gilt banners and flags; and eight or ten elephants waiting on him, clothed in gold, silver, and silk. Thus passed about twelve companies, most richly furnished; the first elephant having all the plates on his head and breast set with rubies and emeralds, being a beast of a wonderful stature and beauty. They all bowed down before the king.”
The secret of this adulation was not any particular respect to the king, as might be expected from this description. When the elephant passed its royal master, the driver perched upon its neck pricked him so violently with his instrument, that the elephant bent its knee, raised its trunk, and roared lustily with pain.