Domestication of elephant

[Allen W Thrasher]

Might the Harappan "feeding trough" indicate at least that the animals were captured though not tamed?  Is there anything to indicate a stockade around them?

Didn't Chandragupta make a gift of elephants to Seleucus?  I think I remember that Porus's army against Alexander a generation earlier contained elephants, but am not sure.  It should be easy to check out.

Allen Thrasher

>>> yavass at MAIL.RU 12/27/05 7:12 AM >>>
Dear Valerie,
as far as I know the earliest artistic *representation* of the domesticated elephant (a chakravartin's elephant)is on the Indian "rattle-mirror" 
from a royal burial of Scythian Pazyryk archeological culture in the Altai mountains. The mirror is of pre-Mauryan date, approximately 
Vth or IVth century BC.
Harappan representations of elephants with a "feeding trough" in front
of the animal's trunk can not be seen as an evidence for domestication 
because the trough is usually represented in the same way in front of
tigers, rhynoceroses and other wild animals.

Yaroslav Vassilkov   

-----Original Message-----
From: Valerie J Roebuck <vjroebuck at MACUNLIMITED.NET>
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk 
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:46:21 +0000
Subject: Domestication of elephant

> 
> A friend has asked me the following question: when was the elephant 
> first domesticated in India?  I was sure that someone on this list 
> must know something...
> 
> Valerie J Roebuck
> Manchester, UK
>