HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The elephant goad, bullhook, or ankus (from Sanskrit ' or ''ankusha'') is a tool employed by mahout in the handling and training of elephants. It consists of a hook (usually bronze or steel) which is attached to a handle, ending in a tapered end. A relief at Sanchi and a fresco at the
Ajanta Caves The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures des ...
depict a three-person crew on the war elephant, the driver with an elephant goad, what appears to be a noble warrior behind the driver and another attendant on the posterior of the elephant.Nossov, Konstantin & Dennis, Peter (2008). ''War Elephants''. illustrated by Peter Dennis. Edition: illustrated. Osprey Publishing.

(accessed: Monday April 13, 2009), p.18
Nossov and Dennis (2008 p 19) report that two perfectly preserved elephant goads were recovered from an archaeological site at
Taxila Taxila or Takshashila (; sa, तक्षशिला; pi, ; , ; , ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and ...
and are dated from 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE according to Marshall. The larger of the two is 65 cm long. Nossov and Dennis (2008: p. 16) state:
An ''ankusha'', a sharpened goad with a pointed hook, was the main tool for managing an elephant. The ''ankusha'' first appeared in India in the 6th-5th century BC and has been used ever since, not only there, but wherever elephants served man.


Fabrication and construction

The handle can be made of any material, from wood to ivory, depending on the wealth and opulence of the owner. Contemporary bullhooks which are used for animal handling generally have handles made of fibreglass, metal, plastic, or wood. The elephant goad is found in armouries and temples all across India, where elephants march in religious processions and perform in various civil capacities. They are often quite ornate, being decorated with gemstones and engravings to be appropriate for the ceremonies in which they are used.


Iconography

The elephant goad is a polysemic iconographic ritual tool in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, in the inclusive rubric of
Dharmic Traditions Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification of ...
. The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with
cetaceans Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...
and hominids. Aristotle once said the elephant was "the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind". The word "elephant" has its origins in the Greek , meaning "ivory" or "elephant". In iconography and ceremonial ritual tools, the elephant goad is often included in a hybridized tool, for example one that includes elements of
Vajrakila In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrakilaya (Skt. ''Vajrakīlaya''; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་ཕུར་པ་, ''Dorje Phurba'', Wyl. ''rdo rje phur pa'') or Vajrakumara (Skt. ''Vajrakumāra''; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེ་གཞོན་ནུ་, '' ...
, 'hooked knife' or 'skin flail' (Tibetan: gri-gug, Sanskrit: kartika), Vajra and Axe, as well as the goad functionality for example. Ritual Ankusha were often finely wrought of precious metals and even fabricated from ivory, often encrusted with jewels. In Dharmic Traditions the goad/ankusha and rope 'noose/snare/lasso' (Sanskrit: Pāśa) are traditionally paired as tools of subjugation.Beer, Robert (2003). ''The handbook of Tibetan Buddhist symbols.'' Serindia Publications, Inc. Source

(accessed: Sunday April 12, 2009), p.146


Hinduism

In the Hinduism, an elephant goad is one of the eight auspicious objects known as
Ashtamangala The Ashtamangala is a sacred suite of ''Eight Auspicious Signs'' endemic to a number of religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The symbols or "symbolic attributes" () are yidam and teaching tools. Not only do these attributes (or e ...
and certain other religions of the Indian subcontinent. A goad is also an attribute of many Hindu gods, especially Tripura Sundari & Ganesha.


Buddhism

Wallace and Goleman (2006: p. 79) discuss ' śamatha' (Sanskrit),
mindfulness Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from ''sati'', a significant element of Hind ...
and introspection which they tie to
metacognition Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word '' meta'', meaning "beyond", or "on top of".Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). ''Metacognition: knowi ...
:
Throughout Buddhist literature, the training in shamatha is often likened to training a wild elephant, and the two primary instruments for this are the tether of mindfulness and the goad of introspection.
Rowlands (2001: p. 124) in discussing consciousness and its
self-conscious Self-consciousness is a heightened sense of awareness of oneself. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. Historically, "self-consciousness" was synonymous with "self-awareness", referring to a state of awareness that o ...
,
self-reflexive Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philos ...
quality of apperception states that:
The most significant aspect of consciousness, I shall try to show, is its structure, its ''hybrid'' character. Consciousness can be both act and object of experience. Using the somewhat metaphorical notion of ''directing'', we might say that consciousness is not only the directing of awareness but ''can'' be that upon which awareness is directed. Consciousness is not only the act of conscious experience, it can be experience's object. '' talics preserved from original'
In the above quotation the metaphor of 'directing' is employed. In 'directing' consciousness or the mind to introspectively apperceive the directive forded by the goad is key.


Tattvasamgraha Tantra

In the ''
Tattvasamgraha tantra The ''Tattva-saṃgraha'' is a text written by the 8th century Indian Buddhist pandit Śāntarakṣita. The text belongs to the 'tenets' (Tib. ''sgrub-mtha'') genre and is an encyclopedic survey of Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophical systems ...
'' (c 7th century), one of the most important tantras of the Buddhist
Yoga Tantra Class Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Buddhist tantric scriptures in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism inherited numerous tantras and forms of tantric practice from medieval Indian Buddhist Tantra. There wer ...
, the ankusha figures in the visualization of one of the retinue. This tantra explains the process of the visualization of the Vajradhatu Mandala, which is one of the most visually stylized of Buddhist mandalas. The Ankusha is the symbolic attribute for the visualization of the Bodhisattva Vajraraja, an emanation within the retinue of Vajradhatu. This visualization is treated in Tachikawa (c2000: p. 237).Tachikawa, M. (c2000). 'Mandala visualization and possession'. ''New Horizons in Bon Studies.'' Source: (accessed: Saturday October 31, 2009)


Literature

In Rudyard Kipling's '' Second Jungle Book'' story "The King's Ankus",
Mowgli Mowgli () is a fictional character and the protagonist of Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' stories. He is a feral boy from the Pench area in Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, India, who originally appeared in Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" (co ...
finds the magnificently-jeweled elephant goad of the title in a hidden treasure chamber. Not realizing the value men place on jewels, he later casually discards it in the jungle, unwittingly leading to a chain of greed and murder amongst those who find it after him. A jeweled goad also appears in the 1942 film adaptation '' Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book''.


See also

*
Aṇkuśāsana Bhairavasana ( sa, भैरवासन) or formidable pose, sometimes called Supta Bhairavasana (सुप्त भैरवासन), is a reclining asana in hatha yoga; the variation Kala Bhairavasana (काला भैरवासन) has ...
, elephant goad pose in hatha yoga


References


Further reading

*Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend () by Anna Dallapiccola {{DEFAULTSORT:Elephant Goad Elephants Weapons in Hindu mythology Weapons in Buddhist mythology Religious objects Animal training Livestock