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Charming generations of visitors

— Photo: S. Mahinsha

Grace: Maheswari, the white elephant at the zoo in Thiruvananthapuram.

Age has not withered her popularity nor has custom brought about staleness in her stately being. For decades now, Maheswari, the albino elephant at the city zoo, has charmed generations of visitors. For thousands of people, a visit to the zoo is not complete without a fond gaze at the tranquil Maheswari tucking in her quota of palm leaves.

What gives Maheswari her special status is not just her age: elephants are known to live for more than a 100 years and the albino is only 74. But Maheswari is the oldest inhabitant of the zoo; a matriarch who has been a constant in an evolving zoo. But, has she always been this popular with visitors?

History’s pet

Zoo veterinarian Joe Jacob Sebastian and Superintendent of the Natural History Museum S. Abu found out recently that Maheswari has been setting hearts aflutter ever since she stepped inside the city zoo as a playful teenager way back in 1946. Flipping through old books kept in the library attached to the NH museum, the duo found an entry about the elephant in the May 1946 edition of the ‘Travancore Information and Listener’ magazine brought out in erstwhile Travancore.

“Cow elephant Maheswari, a recent addition to the Trivandrum Zoological Gardens, has aroused much interest throughout India on account of its having the attributes of a white elephant,” the ‘Listener’ notes. This article appears alongside a photograph of Maheswari and her ‘companion’ Jayarajan, a four-year-old tusker.

The cow’s appearance had evoked interest even back then. “Maheswari is between ten and twelve years old and she has a height of nearly six feet at the shoulders. A light pink skin, all the hairs over the body except those at the tip of the tail completely white, slightly pink palate, pearl coloured eyes and white toe-nails are the features which distinguish this animal from normal elephants. The general colour effect arising from the combination of the light red skin and white hairs is a brownish grey or pinkish white,” the ‘Listener’ marvels.

The magazine also says that there was a lot of auspiciousness attached to the arrival of the young cow elephant at the city zoo. The article quotes ‘Mahakavi’ Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer as having pointed out that just as the capture of a white elephant from the wilds in 988 ME (Malayalam Era, 1813 AD) was linked to the birth of Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma, the capture of Maheswari from the wilds was linked to the birth of princess Aswathi Thirunal on the first of ‘Mithunam’ on 1120 ME (1945 AD). In 988 ME, the then ruler of Travancore Rani Gouri Lakhmi Bai had written to the then Dewan and to the then British resident Col. Munro that the capture of the white elephant was considered auspicious, the article notes.

Revered

The arrival of Maheswari at the zoo was also viewed with veneration from a religious point of view due to the association, in the puranas, of white elephants with the god Indra. “Since the arrival of Maheswari at the zoo, thousands of people are coming specially to see her…” the ‘Listener’ says. The article also reveals the frisky nature of the young albino. Apparently she took so strong a fancy to Jayarajan that “she would not allow his separation even for a minute.” “A year’s training by an experienced mahout has achieved little in teaching her obedience,” the ‘Listener’ records ruefully.

Maheswari is perhaps too old now to be that frisky, but as far as the zoo and generations of visitors are concerned, she is ‘living history.’

G. Mahadevan

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