by Kalyani Kurup

Created on: June 02, 2008   Last Updated: June 22, 2010

The devotion and duty-consciousness of dogs are well-known as their position as man's favorite domestic animals, along with cats, have gone unchallenged for years. But much bigger animals are, equally emotional and bond better with humans. Elephants and horses are able to develop astonishing rapport with their masters and serve them with unwavering devotion and solicitude.

A rider loves the horse he rides. Jockeys, polo players, all have stories to tell of their horse's devotion. In many third world countries horses are used as draught animals. That is not to say that their rapport with their masters is less. There is the story of a poor farmer who spent the money he had saved for his daughter's wedding, on his draught horse that had outlived its usefulness. The wedding had to be cancelled as a result. When a neighbor asked him why he did that, he replied that one cannot let one child suffer in order to better the circumstances of another!

Elephants as domestic animals are still rarer. But it was not so, at least till the early or even mid-twentieth century. While elephants are popular all over India, it was more so in Kerala, the small, lowermost state of the country. Elephants tethered in the backyards of houses, calmly chewing their palm leaves, were not a rare sight in those days. Some were just kept as pets because the masters of the houses fancied them. But some elephants worked for their masters by carrying timber. Others were lend for festivals, for, then as well as now, elephants are an important part of festivals in Kerala, especially of temple festivals. They are richly caparisoned for the occasion and the riders hold silk parasols and swaying peacock plume fans over the majestic animals.

As time passed, decreasing size of landholdings, due to burgeoning population, made keeping elephants at home difficult. But large temples, which have enough space, continued keeping them, as elephants in those temples could be part of even daily rituals, leave alone festivals. As a child, I had been to the famous temple in the town of Guruvayoor where I saw a very interesting sight. During a festival, the idol of the deity was being carried on an elephant around the temple. When the person carrying the idol of the Lord came forward, the elephant lowered itself, bending its front legs to help the man climb with the idol on to its back. There was one more person to be seated atop the elephant, but the animal did not let him climb through the front leg. It straightened

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