the affable elephant of Triplicane temple ~ and a friendly Photographer

 

A ‘B & W’ photo dating back to more than 50 odd years rekindles nostalgic memories, especially for Triplicane vasis. Elephants always attract me 

Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, and they are most attractive and  unique-looking animals, too. With their characteristic long noses, or trunks; large, floppy ears; and wide, thick legs, there is no other animal with a similar physique.   An adult African elephant's trunk is about seven feet (two meters) long! It's actually an elongated nose and upper lip.  When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time. Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows. Out comes the water, right down the elephant's throat.  An elephant's trunk is a fusion of its upper lip and its nose. Filled with more than 100,000 muscles, this huge appendage is both powerful and extremely dexterous. An elephant can use its trunk to rip a limb from a tree or to pick up a single blade of grass.  Elephants also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water.  

The ancient kingdoms of South India had perennial rivers, monsoon forests and many elephants.  Elephants played a great role in many wars and were treated as a great wealth for the Kingdom.  The anthologies and epics of Sangam literature have given heroic admiration to elephants. Elephants are majestic – the special battalion of elephants was sought after … its thick hide would protect from injury ~ the high riding portion gave the rider a good view to attack…     

Residents of Triplicane will ever remember the great majestic beautiful tusker named “Azhwan”. This was one who probably never misbehaved. This gigantic one would be bathed, decorated with thiruman on its forehead and would accompany perumal purappadu. At the end of the purappadu have seen Azhwar offering ‘saamaram’ to Perumal and would walk backwards. It used to carry sacred water (Thirumanjana kudam) from the temple tank, being taken in a procession every morning. 

This extremely kind elephant was a favourite amongst children and grown up. I have spent hours standing and watching its activities. Have ascended a couple of times on it also as it went on procession before the Perumal during maada veedhi purappadu. The feeding of Azhwan at Triplicane  was a much watched event. The mahout used to give it large round balls of rice cake with jaggery, made in the temple. When it came around in streets, people used to offer bananas, jaggery, and sugarcane – it would also eat branches of tree. There were other reports that it was tamed so much that it would happily drink coffee from nearby Vaitha hotel as also take things like kadalai urundai. 

The passing away of affable Azhwar in 1977 (14th Feb 1977)  was indeed a very sad event. Many of us wept. The mortal remains were kept for public viewing and thousands came to pay floral homage to it. Thousands accompanied the funeral cart – when it was taken in a lorry and buried at NKT Girls High school. Some months later (21st June 1977), a small male calf  aged 3 at that time was presented to the temple – Mohan was a playful truant. All of us started enjoying its little pranks. As it grew up, it became violent and more than a couple of occasions, got wild, threw things on its way out violently and went running in narrow lanes of Triplicane, making people feel threatened. 

Unfortunately, during that time there were more incidences of elephants turning violent and the then Govt. banned usage of elephants especially during the Iyappa processions and other public festivals. There were complaints from some quarters and the cumulative effect saw the sending away of Mohan to Guindy Park and then to Vandalur. Every time, I go to Vandalur and see a fully grown male elephant, I reminisce that it could be Mohan whom I saw as a small less than 3 ft child elephant. 

The man sitting on the elephant  is Mr Thanjai Moorthi, now in his mid 80s. A few decades ago, he ran a photo studio – ‘Thanjai Moorthi photo studio’ at kulakkarai – a very friendly person who gave people the face to remember (PP photos) – there was Maruti studio too, at Thiruther entrance (more about this later). The studio provided employment for some Triplicane youngsters too. 

Recently spent sometime with Mr Thanjai Murthi listening to Triplicane old stories – he shared this photo of him on top of Triplicane temple elephant Azhwan  [I remember Azhwan to be a tusker though !] 

 

Elephant loving Triplicane resident – S. Sampathkumar.
4.4.2026