March 10-12, 2014: Thrissur and the Elephant Race at Guruvayur

I left Calicut before 10 on the morning of the 10th on a bus headed inland southeast to Palakkad, 80 miles away. The trip, though low but somewhat hilly terrain (though never rising more than maybe 400 feet in elevation, and then only near the end of the trip), was not as scenic as I had hoped.  The route was congested and slow, the bus taking four hours to reach Palakkad.  The terrain became drier as we headed east, towards the gap in the Western Ghats.  I did see high hills in the distance at times.  

Palakkad was hot.  I decided not to stay and see the fort outside town.  After a good chicken biryani lunch I caught a bus heading to Thrissur, 40 miles southwest, a journey of less than two hours.  This trip, too, was not particularly scenic.  I did see rice fields along the way.  Thrissur, too, was hot, though it is a lot closer to the coast than Palakkad.  I checked into a hotel overlooking the city's central temple.  The temple, on a low mound, is at the very center of the city (of about 350,000 people).  Non-Hindus are not allowed inside. About 6:30 I walked around it, passing lots of men sitting in the relative cool of the early evening, just before dark.  On the north side of the temple I passed two bull temple elephants being tied to trees for the night by their mahouts.  They had brought their own evening meals with them, long branches of some sort of vegetation. Each of their mahouts tied the chain on one of their back feet to a nearby tree.  Another chain on a front foot was tied to a rope attached to a tree further away, to keep them more or less in place during the night.  I watched them eat until it was dark and then spent a very warm night in my hotel room.

The next morning was hot, but with a strong wind blowing.  I walked around the outside of the temple and past some colonial era buildings to the former palace of the Rajas of Cochin.  (I've read they had something like 40 palaces.  The Viceroy elevated them to Maharajas in 1921.)  This palace is about 200 years old and is now a museum.  It’s not a large palace, but the architecture is interesting, with verandas.  Inside the collection included weapons, coins (including quite a few well displayed Roman coins dating from the trade links with Rome 2000 years ago), a carriage, and a bed in a small bedchamber.  Off to one side are gardens and a tank of water.  I spent the hot afternoon mostly in an internet cafe and about 5 walked to a nearby big white Catholic Church, with a central spire 260 feet high.  A crowded church service began at 5:30.  I walked around the central temple again, finding a spot to watch a big, chained male temple elephant feeding. As he was breaking up large pieces of vegetation with his trunk and, when necessary, one of his front feet, he would at times tuck a few pieces between his tusk and trunk until he had a big enough pile to put in his mouth. I spent another hot night in my hotel room, with the temperature inside the room 86 degrees, with my window wide open.

I spent the next morning reading in my room except for a late breakfast, and then about 1 p.m. took a bus about 15 miles northwest to the temple town of Guruvayur, an hour trip, passing lots of big, new houses on the way.  Guruvayur is the site of the Sri Krishna Temple, one of India's richest.  I had come to see the elephant race, scheduled to start at 3, that leads off a ten day temple festival.  In fact, that was the reason I didn't leave Thrissur after only one night there.  I walked to the race course, along a street leading to the temple's eastern entrance.  I asked a local man how long the race course was and he told me a furlong, which is an eighth of a mile.  I walked down to the area near the starting line, where ten or so elephants had gathered with their bare chested mahouts.  One guy had told me, and I had read, that the race would be with ten elephants, but someone else said 29.  As I milled around the starting line with other folks, other elephants began to arrive, and the area became quite crowded with elephants, all males, I think.  It is a little intimidating to be standing among so many elephants, some moving.  You get the feeling that one could sneeze and accidentally crush you.  Indian authorities are not so concerned with public safety as in other countries.  Still, it was fascinating to see so many elephants up close.

About 2:30 I decided I had better find a spot along the race course, though I now wish I had just hung around the starting line.  I found a spot in the shade of trees, but it was still hot in the packed, pushing crowd. I was on a sidewalk, a typical uneven Indian sidewalk, with a newly erected temporary barrier of bamboo rails and a rope to separate the crowd from the elephants.  Drawing upon my knowledge of physics and engineering, I quickly calculated that this barrier would little deter a determined bull elephant, and planned my escape route, as if I would have a chance  to escape.  Eventually, from my spot I could look down the street and see five elephants now lined up side by side at the starting line, with the biggest in the middle.  A couple of white police cars were in front of them.  One left, and then the other quickly pulled out into a side street, and the race began.  

Actually, it was kind of anticlimactic, and I wonder if the fix was in.  Only the first two or three elephants, led by the biggest one that had been in the middle of the starting line, came past with any speed, and then only trotting.  Bare chested men in white dhotis ran alongside them.  The other elephants, and there were at least 20 of them, came along at a walking pace.  It was over in about five, maybe ten, minutes.  

The crowd followed the last of the elephants through the street towards the temple entrance, and so did I.  It took a while to get there in that big crowd.  After all, it was almost a furlong away.  The temple itself, at least outside, looks modern, with metal structures providing shade all around it.  The winning elephant was inside the temple and for his efforts won the right to lead the temple processions during the ten day festival.  At the opening in the walled temple compound, bare chested guys in dhotis stood guard, with silver plated posts behind them, and behind the posts a wall with interesting and colorful murals, including Krishna playing his flute.  I walked around, watching all the people.  One elephant was still around, but heading away from the temple to the north.  The others had already left.  Stages were set up around the temple for performances during the upcoming festival.  

I left on a bus back to Thrissur about 4:30 and at an intersection in a little town along the way we passed a big tusked elephant all decorated, including a big silver plate over his forehead, standing with a big group of bare chested, white dhoti wearing men.  Back in Thrissur I again walked to the north side of the central temple and watched a big bull elephant being tied up for the night.  I watched him for about half an hour as he ripped up and ate the long branches of vegetation he had brought with him for his evening meal.