ELEPHANTS, HISTORICAL 141 



Such elephant-bome platforms are quite usual in the Buddh- 

 ist dagobas of Ceylon, for the elephant plays an important 

 role in Buddhist legend, as it was this animal which an- 

 nounced in a dream to Maya Devi, mother of the celestial 

 Buddha, the coming of the Bodhisattva. This theme was 

 used by many Hindu sculptors whose work may be seen in 

 Amravati and in Southern India.* 



The popular fancy in some parts of India that the ele- 

 phants of Ceylon were of a superior breed found expression 

 in the story that all other elephants rendered homage to 

 them and would prostrate themselves before them in token 

 of veneration. Another recital concerning Cinghalese ele- 

 phants is to the effect that a couple of centuries ago the 

 East India Company sent some of them as gifts to the Sul- 

 tan of Sulu; as, however, he was unable or unwilling to 

 maintain them, they were landed and let loose at Cape 

 Unsang, Borneo, and are believed to be the progenitors of 

 the wild elephants on that island to-day. Of the kind of 

 obeisance made before the Cinghalese elephant by those 

 of other species, Ta vernier declares that "by a natural in- 

 stinct they pay it reverence by placing the ends of the 

 trunk upon the ground and then elevating them."t 



The famous white elephants of Burma have shared with 

 those of Siam the repute of being incarnations of the Buddha, 

 or at least of being living memorials of the white elephant of 

 long ago, the form of the last incarnation of Gautama, before 

 his birth in human form and his attainment of the dignity 

 of the Buddha. Hence it is that one of these rare elephants 

 is selected by the priesthood and is accorded religious honour, 

 just as in ancient Egypt the sacred bull Apis was honoured 



*Gerard A. Joseph, "The Elephant Stylobate in the Colombo Museum," in reprint 

 from "Spolia Zeylanica," Vol. VIII, PI. XXX, June, 1912; pp. 141, 142. 



tSee "Travels in India of Jean Baptiste Tavernier," trans, by Dr. Valentine Ball, 

 London, 1889. Vol. II, p. 317, text £md note citing Fryer's " Accoipit," Calcutta j see i^lsg 

 pote pp. 318, 319, 



