mahout

Mahouts helping an elephant to take a bath, Thrissur, Kerala

Mahout with a young elephant at Elephant Nature Park, Thailand

Mahout and his elephant Guruvayoor, Thrissur, Kerala

A mahout is a person who drives an elephant. The word mahout comes from the Hindi words mahaut and mahavat, derivatives of the Sanskrit word mahamatra, meaning "[one] having great measure."

Description

An elephant carrying Thidambu during Thrissur pooram temple festival in Kerala

Caparisoned elephants during Sree Poornathrayesa temple festival, Thrippunithura, mahout climbing on elephants.

Usually, a mahout starts as a boy in the 'family business' when he is assigned an elephant early in its life and they would be attached to each other throughout the elephant's life.

The most common tool used by mahouts is a goud called anlius, or Aṅkuśa - a sharp hook used to guide a tamed elephant by prodding on the back of its head.

Sanskrit language distinguishes three types: Reghawaan, who use love to control their elephants, Yuktimaan, who use ingenuity to outsmart them and Balwaan, those who control elephants with strength and cruelty.

The job is described in detail in the on-line Mahout manual.

Devices used to control elephants in Kerala

In India especially Kerala, mahouts use three types of device to control elephants. Thotti (hook) which is 3.5 feet in length and 3 inches thick, Valiya kol (long pole) which is 10.5 feet in length and 5.5 inches in thickness and cheru kol (short pole).

Mahout with his thotti (hook).

Elephants in Kerala are trained not to move when the Valiya kol (long pole) is kept on them.

Miscellany

A display advertizing "Mahout" cigarettes features prominently in the background of the "rain dance" sequence of the famous 1952 Gene Kelly film Singin' in the Rain.

Another term for mahout is cornac (as in French, from the Portuguese; kornak in Dutch and Polish, also a rather current last name).^{[citation needed]} In Tamil, the word used is "pahan", which means elephant keeper, and in Sinhalese kurawanayaka ('stable master'). In Malayalam the word use is paappaan.

In Burma, the profession is called oozie; and in Thailand kwan-chang.

See also

• Elephants in Kerala culture
• War elephant, for soldiers in the mahout role, often armed and combatant
• Howdah, a carriage mounted on the back of an elephant
• Elefantasia, for information on mahouts living and working in Laos

Sources and references

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Elephant glossary