Arjun washing his new young Elephant

Arjun with his new 9 and a half year old elephant Akila <the short name of the
Goddess Arkilandeshwari

This story is both sad and sweet as life often is.

The previous temple elephant Shanti died suddenly in July 2010 at the not so old age of 54. The day Shanti died the temple, the town and the schools closed for the day and thousands came to pay their last respects.
Shanti was very special, an amazingly gentle giant who would let small children play near her massive feet and feed her with lovely sweets or a banana or two. I saw Shanti on indian tv a few years ago being adored by a young german girl who had picked Shanti out of maybe 100 elephants at an elephant camp in a nearby wildlife sanctuary.It was amazing to see the trust and comfort of this child with this huge animal.
Shanti lived with the family who fed her, bathed her and dressed her for temple processions etc. right outside where they slept and ate their meals.
Almost like a house pet with a large appetite that needed a huge enclosure attached to their house.
I first met Shanti and her mahout Sri Basker around 1978 in the Shiva temple in Thiruvanaikoil near Trichy in South India. Also known as Jambukeshwarar.
I managed a couple of color photographs but it was posed and the light was so low that I did not think much about it at the time. I really preferred to photograph some of the processions and the architecture rather than posed people shots. Besides that I was living in India on a very thin shoe string and had very little access to color film, so exposures were not something to be taken by the hundreds. In fact there was literally no color slide film available unless someone brought it to you from overseas, so even more reason to be frugal with the shutter button.

This could make a very long story which I am planning on writing but will fast forward through various journeys and photo pilgrimages over the years to one time when I travelled with a box of prints of photographs taken on previous trips with the hope of running into one of the subjects.
I sought out the elephant family with my one good picture of Basker and Shanti taken around 1978. They were overcome as their father <Sri Basker>
had recently died at the age of 54 , note the age of Shanti when she died. They hardly had any pictures of him at all, let alone a nice 8x10 color print.
More years pass and more trips to India, some of them bring me here to reunite with Shanti and family .
This trip was supposed to be one more of those, a reunion with people, places and more photography in an attempt to wrap up a project that has been simmering for 35 plus years.

Elephants are supposed to live a long time, suddenly Shanti was no more.

Arjun had been with Shanti from as early as he could remember, playing near her and growing up with her .When his father died he took up the position of second mahout ,his older brother Jambu was trained by his father as the second mahout.
Now only in his early twenties Arjun loses Shanti, he is distraught, in mourning, his Shanti is no more.
Grief gives way to anxiety about their future as everything in their life revolved around Shanti and their livelihood depended on her as well.
What would they do now? How would they live.
Human resilience is amazing, given the extreme nature of this situation, instead of self destructing, Arjun went to work in the temple collecting admission tickets from the many pilgrims who come here in a steady stream seven days a week, morning till night, until he and his brother could find a benefactor who could help procure another elephant.
At last after 2 trips to Assam and what sounded like a really rough period and even rougher living conditions whilst in Assam. They travel from Assam to South India in the back of an open truck for 8 days with a new elephant and not much in the way of food or water let alone basic comfort.
Arjun and Jambu returned with the young protégé only a few weeks ago and are in the process of training her in the life she will live as a temple processional elephant.
In about 10 years she will be as tall as Shanti was when we met so many years ago.


Arjun has a new first baby boy just a few months old so there is a new beginning after an incredibly sad and traumatic experience. He was smiling as we parted today, we did not say goodbye but in Tamil there is a saying that translates to ..
I will go and come .