The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c26.95

v1.c26.95

Among the animals of India, it was the elephants, the monkeys, and the snakes which especially drew the attention of the Greeks. The elephants, of course, showed them a type of animal unlike anything they had ever seen. Their size must have accorded with the impression of vastness made by the rivers and the trees of India. And to this was added their extraordinary form with the serpentine proboscis. Megasthenes gave an account of the way in which wild elephants were captured, agreeing closely with the practice of to-day³. The longevity of the elephant was also a fact which the Greeks discovered, though Onesicritus accepted from some informant the extravagant estimate of 300 years for an elephant’s life⁴. ‘They are so teachable, that they can learn to throw stones at a mark and to use arms, also to sew beautifully.’ ‘If any animal has a wise spirit, it is the elephant. Some of them, when their drivers have been killed in battle, have picked them up themselves and carried them to burial; some have defended them as they lay; some have saved those who fell off at their own peril. Once when an elephant killed his driver in a rage he died of remorse and despair⁵.’ ‘It is a very great thing to possess an elephant chariot. A woman who receives an elephant as a present from her lover acquires great prestige,’ and any moral frailty she might show under such an inducement was condoned⁶.