 Reference Base  The adventures of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier in Eastern Indi... |
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Deloche, J., 2008. The adventures of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier in Eastern India, 1752-1765: historical memoir and journal of travels in Assam, Bengal, and Tibet. Translated into English by Caroline Dutta-Baruah & Jean Deloche. Guwahati, LBS Publications
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India - Assam |
| Subject: |
Distribution |
| Species: |
Asian Rhino Species |
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Deloche, J., 2008. The adventures of Jean-Baptiste Chevalier in Eastern India, 1752-1765: historical memoir and journal of travels in Assam, Bengal, and Tibet. Translated into English by Caroline Dutta-Baruah & Jean Deloche. Guwahati, LBS Publications
Entered Assam near Goalpara on 24 November 1755 and then spent two months traveling up the Brahmaputra to Garhgaon. This was the old capital of the Ahom kingdom now situated about 13 km east of Sivasagar, where a palace was built by King Rajeswar Singha (reigned 1751-1769). During his stay at the court, the king organised a hunting party:
I was invited to the king's hunting party, a show unimaginable in Europe and something that deserves curiosity. The army units under one conunand number from 1,000 to 1,200 men or sometimes more. Each soldier has to carry two to three stakes. They are assembled across an area, previously earmarked, that is expected to have the maximum density of wild animals. The troops make an enclosure around the area with fences made of the stakes brought by them. Outside the fence, a large scaffold like a giant watchtower is built for the king and his invitees to watch the show from a vantage point. After the arrival of these dignitaries, some men step inside the fence and set fire from all sides to the long dry straws, within which the trapped animals are hiding. The rising flames excite the animals which, in their rage and fury, try to escape from every side. As they throw themselves on the fence trying to break it, their dreadful howling and roaring fill the air. But instead of freedom, it is the spears held by the people positioned outside the fence that pierce their bodies. Firing guns and darting arrows thrown by the amused king and his retinue spare no animal that passes back and forth below their scaffold. At last the hunt is over in a day as the flames eat up all the ferocious animals; thousands of wild buffaloes and elephants, quantities of tigers and rhinoceros are destroyed in an instant. It is a superb horror to see and to hear. It is the safety of the country and of the crops that authorise such bloody pleasure and, in fact, it is necessary. The various animals are in such great number and they multiply at such a rate that if they were not destroyed that way, the inhabitants would not be able to step out of their houses without risking their lives and the seeds would be eaten up as soon as they germinate. [pp. 28-29, italics for important passage]
In Guwahati in early 1757 he witnessed a tri-annual ceremony at the Temple of Kamakhya, where all animals of the kingdom, each represented by a male and female, are offered to the deity. The temple located on Nilachala Hill west of the city had a remarkable menagerie at the time:
What a surprise it was to see an immense park surrounded with fences containing a couple (male and female) each of all species of quadrupeds and birds known in the entire kingdom.
All the. governors of the provinces and the chiefs of the villages have to provide their share and send it to the pagoda every three years. When the time arrives for the sacrifices, this entire fauna is immolated at the altar of the goddess.
When Chevalier visited, the king started the ceremony with the offering of a pair of elephants:
Then came the rhinoceros, tigers, buffaloes and quantities of other animals of all kinds and all were subjected to the same ritual. When the sacrifice of the quadruped, lasting for several days, is over, comes the one of the volatiles and finally the one of the fishes.
One of the early kings had vowed to present the goddess with as many golden statues of animals as were offered to her during the festival, a vow to be carried forward by his descendants.
Therefore it is difficult to count the amount of golden animals placed around the temple. I have seen elephants, rhinoceros of medium and even small sizes, and quantities of life sized replicas of other species. The king added two golden stags, as big as the ones we have in our forests in Europe, to this treasure. Although all these statues are hollow and the gold is of a very pale colour, the entire collection as a whole represents a treasure of great value.
In 1757-58 Chevalier traveled from Dhaka to Assam. When he was in the general area of Goalpara, he found lots of animals:
We moored at the foot of one of the mountains of Bisili, called Dir. Throughout the night we had the charming symphony of buffaloes, tigers, rhinoceros and elephants howling continuously; a frightening noise which echoed through the mountains. They came up to the edge of the river next to our boats. All the rowers were petrified with fear and went into hiding into the bottom of the boats. The soldiers, however, kept off these wild animnls by firing a few rifle and cannon shots.(p.133)
Again, on 30 July 1758, when he was near Yogighapa just north of the Brahmaputra near Goalpara, Chevalier went hunting in the mountains:
We saw many games of all kinds. We were hunting with all the enthusiasm of a hunter that sees his prey, when a monstrous rhinoceros of the height of the strongest elephant stopped us. A few gunshots were not enough to make him escape. lt looked at us rather carefully and finally came towards us. We did not wait for him; we all escaped separately and left the field open for him.
Later, traveling upriver on the Brahmaputra, near the foot of the Mikir Hills, i.e. in the vicinity of Nagaon, he again saw many animals:
The most remarkable things we saw during the day were the numerous herds of buffaloes and wild elephants that we discovered at gun range on the bank of the river. Some of the animals in both species were of a phenomenal size; we also saw one rhinoceros. (p.175)
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