The procession of caparisoned elephants is an integral part of
any temple festival in Kerala. It is more a Kerala tradition than a Hindu
tradition as it is being seen in local festivals related to churches and
mosques too. Elephants, the largest wild animals in the world have a significant role
in the history and cultural heritage of Kerala and that is the reason for
including elephants in the official logo of Kerala state.
Although it was a practice for centuries to use elephants
for procession in temples and for other cultural events in Kerala, a movement
is getting stronger against this practice nowadays. Many eminent persons are
also backing this movement terming it as an act of cruelty towards animals.
Indeed it is cruelty in some cases whereas it is not in some other cases.
There were and are many mahouts who have loved their elephants more than their
wards and this story is about a story about the implausible relation between an
elephant and its mahout.
As all are aware, Kerala has been divided into several
fractions before the arrival of British and each fraction has been ruled by
different dynasties and feudal lords. They used to fight with each other to
establish their supremacy and to conquer the other. After a long battle which
lasted for several days, Marthanda Varma, then King of Travancore subjugated
Kayamkulam a nearby princely state. After the victory, King Marthanda Varma
visited Thiruvattatu Adi Kesava Temple, which was the family temple of
Kaymkulam dynasty. There he found a cute calf elephant. He adopted it and named
it after the temple deity as Adikesavan. He appointed a teen aged boy, Azhaka
Pillai as the mahout for Adikesavan.
He ordered Azhaka Pillai to keep the elephant at the
Thiruvattatu Temple and gave him permission to take elephant to other temples
too if they need Adikesavan to take part in the procession. He also gave
permission to Pillai for using the elephant in bringing large woods from the
forest. On those days, it was elephants that are used to bring huge wood pieces
from the forests. However, the king put
a strict condition that on 15 th of every month, Pillai should bring elephant to
his palace in the early morning as he wants to see Adikesavan as the first
sight of the day on that day.
King has designated a specific place in his courtyard for
Adikesavan to wait so that he can see the elephant as he wakes up and open the
windows. Azhaka Pillai used to bring the elephant on every 15th and
keep it at the place. Then he will move far as he did not want the king to see
him too as the first sight. After seeing the elephant, the king will come out
and give bananas, sugarcanes and jiggery which are kept ready. Once the King as
given him one piece from each item, Adikesavan will move a bit back. This is a
sign that he does not want the king to take trouble in feeding him. As the king
understands Adikesavan well, he will move back and sit on a chair after giving
permission to Adikesavan to have all. Even Azhaka Pillai has been rewarded with
clothes and money on those days.
It has been a practice for both the elephant and the mahout
and on some occasions, when Azhaka Pillai was not well, Adikesavan had come
alone to the palace travelling miles and miles.
Suddenly one day, the King expired and his predecessor,
Dharmaraja took the Charge. As Azhaka Pillai knows that the news of demise of
king will be hard to digest, he did not inform Adikesavan. The next month, as
usual Adikesavan came to the palace along with Pillai. As usual he trumpeted to
wake the king. Dharmaraja, the new king did not have the habit of waking up
early. Hence the trumpeting irritated him. He got furious and shouted the
mahout to take the elephant away.
Experiencing a different treatment, Adikesavan broke down
and he ran away from the place taking Pillai in his trunk. They travelled many
miles and stopped for a while to take rest. At that time Pillai told Adikesavan
about the demise of the King. It was really painful to him and the tears
started coming out of his eyes. He did not eat anything.
At the same time, back in the palace, when the king woke up,
companions told him about the practice of Marthanda Varma keeping the elephant
for first sight in the morning. They also told him that Adikesavan might not be
aware of the demise of Marthanda Varma and hence he came there as usual.
Hearing the details, Dharmaraja too felt bad on his behavior and he sent
persons to bring back the elephant. However, Adikesavan was not in a mood to
obey royal order.
Seven days have passed and Adikesavan did not even drink
water. All these days, officials used to come there to take Adikesavan to the
palace. On the seventh day Azhaka Pillai told Adikesavan that it is not a good
practice to disobey the royal order. He agreed and went to the palace.
With a great joy on his arrival Dharmaraja offered him
bananas, coconut leaves, sugarcane etc but he did not went near the king. Then
Pillai told king that the elephant did not have bath for last seven days and if
it touched King, he will became impure. Hearing the reason for Adikesavan
keeping a distance, King ordered Pillai to take the elephant to the nearby
river and to have bath. Adikesavan came back to the palace after taking bath
and accepted the materials submitted by his majesty. Then the King ordered to
continue the practice as usual but not very early in the morning.
Both Adikesavan and Azhaka Pillai were of same age and both
of them were getting weak as they grew older. Azhaka Pillai became very weak
and he became bedridden. However, Adikesavan used to go for temple processions
and for brining woods from the forest alone. He insisted that Azhaka Pillai
should his part of wages. Temple authorities used to come to Azhaka Pillai’s
house and present him his part of money. Then only Adikesavan will go there. He
never created any mishaps even when he was alone and without a mahout.
Whenever he is free, he used to spend his time in the
premises of Azhaka Pillai’s house. One such morning he heard a loud cry from
Pillai’s house and he understood that his friend has left the world. He lifted
his trunk as if he is paying homage to his friend of the life and moved to a
corner in the compound. He lied on the ground and did not eat anything. On that
night, Adikesavan too left the world to join his lifelong friend Azhaka Pillai.
Both of them were around eighty years old then.
Since his teen ages, Azhaka Pillai never worked as a mahout
for any elephant other than Adikesavan and Adikesavan never had a mahout other
than Azhaka Pillai. They started life together, lived together and died
together too.
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