‘Ivory in Early Modern Ceylon: A Case Study in What Documents Don’t Reveal’

Abstract

In Sri Lanka elephants are endangered and ivory carving, as an art, is dead. Sri Lanka was once famous for the number and quality of its elephants, whose tusks were carved and exported since ancient times. Although Sri Lanka became, successively, a pivotal outpost for the Portuguese, Dutch and English, details about the Ceylonese ivory trade appear in trade documents only rarely. And yet, if information is not to be found there, does that mean ivory trade did not occur? Trade documents, after all, do not tell the whole story. Smugglers, illegal traders, big game hunters and plantation owners all played a part in the disappearance of elephants and its corollary, the ivory trade. When archival evidence is viewed in combination with physical evidence and the anecdotes of visitors and residents, it becomes evident that ivory remained an integral part of trade and crafts in Ceylon well into the last century.

Full text

ivoryinearlymodernceylon:
a case study in what documents
don’t reveal
Martha Chaiklin
University of Pittsburgh
E-mail Chaiklin@pitt.edu
In Sri Lanka elephants are endangered and ivory carving, as an art, is dead. Sri Lanka was once
famous for the number and quality of its elephants, whose tusks were carved and exported since
ancient times. Although Sri Lanka became, successively, a pivotal outpost for the Portuguese,
Dutch and English, details about the Ceylonese ivory trade appear in trade documents only
rarely. And yet, if information is not to be found there, does that mean ivory trade did not
occur? Trade documents, after all, do not tell the whole story. Smugglers, illegal traders, big
game hunters and plantation owners all played a part in the disappearance of elephants and
its corollary, the ivory trade. When archival evidence is viewed in combination with physical
evidence and the anecdotes of visitors and residents, it becomes evident that ivory remained
an integral part of trade and crafts in Ceylon well into the last century.
introduction
Every tourist venue in Sri Lanka teems with tusked elephants: carved of wood, formed from
brass, in relief on silver trays, etched in lace on centerpieces, outlined in batik, emblazoned
on t-shirts, and adorning the covers of tea boxes. Carved and bejeweled ivory elephants
were once at the top of this heap. Items of this sort were displayed even at the 1904
St. Louis Worlds Fair.
1
But they have disappeared, due to Sri Lankan conservation
efforts and the passage in 1989 of CITES (Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species). Elephants are a prime focus of modern conservation efforts, and as
such have been studied and documented extensively. But the same cannot be said of
Generous funding for this research was provided by the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies. The author
would like to convey special thanks to John D. Rogers, William Clarence-Smith and George Souza for reading
and commenting on earlier drafts of this paper. An earlier version appears in Nigel Worden, ed., Contingent
Lives: Social Identity and Material Culture in the VOC World. (Cape Town: Historical Studies Department, 2007.)
1 By D. F. De Silva & Co. and Abdul Caffor. Kunz 1915, p. 118. D. F. De Silva and Company was founded in 1870
and had showrooms at 7 Chatham Street and 2 Grand Oriental Hotel Arcade in Colombo. N. D. H. Adbul
Caffor was a pearl and diamond merchant founded in 1893, and located at 9 & 10 Bristol Buildings York
Street, Colombo. They had branches in London and were known for their gemstones rather than for any
association with ivory. Wright 1999, pp. 460–63, 466.
International Journal of Asian Studies,6,1 (2009), pp. 37–63 2009 Cambridge University Press
doi:10.1017|S1479591409000023 Printed in the United Kingdom
37

ivory in Ceylon. Existing scholarship either has dismissed ivory as scarce and irrelevant, or
lumped it together, without distinction, with that of Southern India. Ceylon, successively a
pivotal outpost for the Portuguese, Dutch and English, was a significant source for ivory,
but the specifics about this trade appear in trade documents only rarely. Shall we then con-
clude that ivory trade did not occur?
sri lankan elephants –a source of ivory?
The spotlight on elephants in Sri Lanka is by no means the creation of a modern commer-
cialized economy. From as early as the sixth century BCE, elephants were used for royal
transportation and as beasts of burden. They were pitted against each other in battle or
for the amusement of kings.
2
Elephants even served as executioners in gruesome events
which, supposedly, they were trained to prolong by stomping on the extremities of the vic-
tim before delivering a final merciful foot to the head.
3
When Buddhism was introduced to
the island sometime in the third century BCE, the symbolic importance of the elephant, as
a possessor of strong character and wisdom, as one of the seven jewels of royal power, and
even as Buddha himself, found ready acceptance in local practices. Some even believed that
the souls of kings inhabited the bodies of elephants.
4
Thus elephants are depicted in Sri
Lankan art of all periods.
Some scientists regard the Sri Lankan elephant (elephas maximus zeylanica) as a distinct
subspecies of the Asian Elephant (elephas maximus maximus). Characteristic of the elephants
of Sri Lanka is a large, bony forehead. These elephants were valued not only domestically, but
also abroad. As difficult as the logistics must have been, even in ancient times they were
exported to India, a practice mentioned, for example, in the Travels of Ibn Battuta, the remi-
niscences of a Moroccan traveler of the early fourteenth century.
5
Nearly every European
observer, from Diogo do Couto (1542–1616)
6
through English dispatches of the nineteenth
century, note the quality of Ceylonese elephants. What made Ceylonese
elephants desirable was their temperament rather than their size, which was on the small
side.
7
As Europeans arrived, elephants were exported by each of the colonial powers in
turn: the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English. In the early years of Dutch
rule, elephants were considered second only to cinnamon as a significant export.
8
The
Dutch East India Company obtained elephants “as tribute, by payment, and by having
2 D'Oyly 1929, p. 24.
3 See, e.g., Wisumperuma 2003, pp. 6–12.
4 Hensoldt 1894–1895, p. 73.
5 Gibb 1969, p. 95.
6 Ferguson 1908, p. 35. Do Couto says, “Its elephants, of which a good number are bred, are those with the best
instinct in the whole of India and because they are notably the most tamable and handsomest they are worth
much.”
7 Robert Percival, An Account of the Island of Ceylon (1803) (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1990), p. 282.
Similarly, Alexander Hamilton calls them “the most docile of any in the World,”Hamilton 1930, vol. 1, p. 190.
Sometimes they are mistakenly noted as being valued for their large size. See, e.g., Valentijn 1978, p. 180.
8 Tennent 1996, 2, p. 53. Also see De Silva 1990, and Bidermann 2005, 2, pp. 141–66.
38 ivory in early modern ceylon

them captured on its account.”
9
By the time the English took over in 1795, however, “the
taking of elephants was no longer considered by the Ceylon Government an important
branch of revenue.”
10
Nevertheless exports continued throughout the nineteenth century,
some of which were intended for zoological gardens and circuses.
11
Just as the presence of oysters means that there are pearls, the presence of elephants
indicates ivory. Not all oysters contain pearls, but all species are capable of producing
them; likewise, not all elephants have tusks, but tuskers exist in all species of elephants.
The percentage of Sri Lankan elephants bearing tusks is unusually small. Modern estimates
put tuskers at 3–7% of the population, with tusks appearing exclusively in males. There
has been much speculation as to why this is the case. Samuel W. Baker, a
mid-nineteenth-century resident in Ceylon, postulated, “there are elements wanting in
the Ceylon pasturage (which is generally poor) for the formation of ... ivory.”
12
His con-
temporary James Emerson Tennent (1804–1869) disparaged a then commonly held belief
that African elephants required tusks to dig out water in the sand or in plants, whereas
in tropic Ceylon the abundance of water and vegetation made tusks less necessary.
13
Among modern theories, one suggests that Sri Lankan elephants originally were tuskless,
their tusks appearing only after they crossbred with imported elephants.
14
What seems
more likely is that the selective culling of elephants with tusks has led to the predomi-
nance of the tuskless gene.
The Ceylonese placed higher value on elephants with tusks. Kandyan kings, for example,
usually retained only elephants with tusks because tuskers were required for state and reli-
gious processions. It is perhaps for this reason that elephants in art, even tourist art, are always
depicted with tusks. Robert Knox, an Englishman held captive by the king of Kandy for
twenty years during the third quarter of the seventeenth century, claimed never to have
seen the Kandyans take any elephants from the wild but “Choice ones with teeth.”
15
Because the Portuguese, Dutch, and English traders received a higher price for tusked ele-
phants, they also attempted to obtain as many tusked elephants as possible.
16
Later, when
sport hunting became widespread, a tusker was a desired trophy. Samuel Baker noted:
What a sight for a Ceylon elephant-hunter would be the first view of a herd of
African elephants –all tuskers! In Ceylon, a “tusker”is a kind of spectre, to be
talked of by a few who have had the good luck to see one. And when he is seen
9 Reimers 1946, p. 85.
10 Bertolacci 1983, p. 162.
11 Webb 2002, pp. 101–02; Clark 1971, p. 135.
12 Baker n.d., p. 125.
13 Tennent 1996, 2, pp. 273–75.
14 This theory was advocated as early as 1901. See Clark 1971, p. 12.
15 Knox 1989, p. 80.
16 The price differential varied over time, with early records claiming double, and later records claiming about
35%. Regardless, it was significant enough to make them more valuable. The Portuguese assessed the tribute
at two tuskers or four aleas (tuskless males). Pieris 1995, p. 25.
martha chaiklin 39

by a good sportsman, it is an evil hour for him –he is followed till he gives up
his tusks.
17
This constant pressure on tusked elephants may have led to their decline. Recent studies
have noted that in areas of heavy poaching, tusklessness has appeared even in normally
tusked male Asian and African elephants.
18
Even tuskless elephants usually have at least a set of smaller protruding teeth called
tushes. In females they are small, but males can have tushes half the length of a tusk
but only a couple inches in diameter. Though less valuable, tushes are still sufficient for
many carving applications.
19
In Europe, for example, they were used for billiard balls
because of their lower cost and fine grain. In Ceylon, most of the raw material for carving
came from tushes, because the larger tusks were highly valued and often mounted intact.
20
The technical term for tushes and tusks of less than 20 lb (as opposed to about 30–70 lb for
a full-sized Asian tusk) was scrivello.
21
Indigenous Ivory Traditions
In Sri Lanka ivory was valued for its use in carving from at least as early as the second cen-
tury CE, but probably much earlier. Descriptions of Lanka in the Ramayama make refer-
ences to ivory-embellished chariots and ivory panels. King Jethatissa II (c. 332) was even
known as the “ivory carver king”, and reputedly taught these arts to his subjects. By at
least the fifteenth century, ivory working had become important enough to result in the
evolution of castes that placed ivory workers fairly high on the social scale, just below
farmers. François Valentijn, writing in the early eighteenth century, mentions two distinct
castes of ivory artisans, the carvers (Atdatkatayankarayo), who ranked high among artisan
castes, and the turners (Liyana vaduvo), who were lower on the social scale. Turners used
lathes to produce round boxes, fan handles and the like.
22
In Kandy, gold and silversmiths,
painters, and ivory carvers were among the so-called Four Workshops (Pattal-hatara)
allowed only to work for the king unless granted explicit permission to do otherwise.
23
Although by the early modern period there were several ethnic groups in Ceylon, includ-
ing Tamils, and the so-called Moors (Muslims) –some of whom were craftsman –ivory
17 Baker n.d., p. 124.
18 See, for example, Whitehouse 2002, pp. 249–54, and “Tuskless elephants evolving in China due to poaching”,
Daily Mirror, 19 July 2005, p. 4.
19 According to Samuel W. Baker, they “are of so little value that they are not worth extracting from the head.”
Baker 1904, pp. 9–10.
20 Tilakasiri 1974, p. 43.
21 In some sources the weight of a scrivello is even less. In “The Ivory Trader,”Living Age 54 (April, May, June,
1886), pp. 703–04 it is given as 10–15 lb. The Cyclopediea of Commerce, Mercantile Law, Finance and Commercial
Geography (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1843), p. 430, defines it as “the smallest teeth and fragments.”The
Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 20 lb but the oldest reference cited therein, John Atkins, A voyage to
Guinea, Brasil, and the West Indies 1723–35 (1737), defined it as from 4–15 lb.
22 Valentijn 1978; Coomaraswamy 2004, pp. 180, 184.
23 Coomaraswamy 1979, p. 55.
40 ivory in early modern ceylon

carving in Ceylon seems to have been generally restricted to the Sinhalese castes.
24
As
Ernest Haeckel, a German naturalist who went to Ceylon in 1881, observed:
[The Tamils] bring precious stones, shells, silver filigree, and other ornaments
on board to sell; while the Cinghalese deal in cocoa-nuts, bananas, pine-apples,
fish and crabs, or in the characteristic products of their own industry such as
images of elephants, or of Buddha carved in ivory or ebony ...
25
Sinhalese ivory carvers produced ivory elephants, known as Perahera (after the Buddhist
festivals that include parades of costumed elephants), and jewelers, who were predomi-
nantly Muslim, applied the gems to these items.
26
Tourist shops in Colombo in the nine-
teenth century also seem to have been generally run by Muslims or Tamil traders, who
played a historically significant role as international traders to Sri Lanka.
27
Ivory was carved with a high degree of skill, using only simple tools such as saws, chi-
sels and rasps.
28
Ivory artisans often were accomplished at other arts as well, such as wood
carving or painting.
29
The products created by these artisans included ivory knife handles,
which were a part of male attire,
30
combs, bangles, boxes, book covers, compasses and even
architectural elements, such as ornamentation around door frames. While ivory tended to
be more of a luxury item than not, possession appears to have been common across the
social spectrum: ivory combs were a traditional wedding gift, while ivory betel boxes
and ivory jewelry have survived in great quantities.
31
Ivory was also used extensively in Buddhist settings, as covers for texts, fan handles
(which were one of the few items Buddhists monks could personally own and were received
upon papillary succession) and scent sprayers (siviliya). This last item was a masterpiece of
ivory turning that consisted of a hollow cylindrical base and a long neck. A secret method,
now lost, was used to turn a bottom piece of such thinness it could be compressed by hand
to convey the scent up the neck.
32
Buddhist images carved of ivory also were produced in
some quantity. Although many tourist trinkets with Buddhist images have been created
24 In modern times ivory craftsmen were predominately of the Navandhana caste. Charles Santiapillai, p. 178.
25 Haeckel 1881, p. 75.
26 Martin and Martin 1990.
27 Commented on in Hornaday 1929, p. 240. The curio dealers listed in the “Commercial”description of
Colombo in Wright, ed., Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, pp. 466–520, also all seem to have names
that would support the supposition that they are not Sinhalese.
28 Westerners frequently commented how few tools Ceylonese craftsmen used. See, e.g., Baldaeus 1996, p. 818.
29 Coomaraswamy 1979, p. 69; Tilakaseri 1974, p. 43.
30 See, e.g., Valentijn 1978, p. 161.
31 “A betel box of ivory or tortoise-shell mounted with gold was as necessary to a great lady, as a silver tea
service is today.”P. E. Pieris, Ceylon and the Hollanders (1918) (New Delhi: Asian Educational Service,
1999), p. 102. According to Jacob Haafner, these boxes were “used by Christian and mestizo women,”
J. A. de Moor and P. G. E. I. J. Van Der Velde, De Werken van Jacob Haafner (Zutphen: Walburgh Pers,
1997), 3:354 (Reize in Eenen Palanquin 1827). Ivory jewelry does not appear to have been restricted by
class. Pieris 1983, 2, p. 103.
32 Coomaraswarmy 1979, p. 187. Already by the 1970s not a single craftsman could make these. Gunasekere
1977, p. 156.
martha chaiklin 41

from ivory both in and outside of Sri Lanka, the use of ivory for proper religious images
apparently was unique to Sri Lanka, because, being an animal substance, other cultures
regarded it as either inappropriate or, more prosaically, simply too difficult and
expensive to obtain. Buddhist temples in Ceylon were often repositories for ivory donated
by individuals or the king of Kandy himself.
33
Temple craftsmen at times used donated
materials to create the images, often leaving them in tusk form.
34
Even today, it is still
common practice to place mounted elephant tusks on each side of temple doorways.
Ivory confiscated from poachers or from elephants that die is generally given to Buddhist
temples.
35
Ivory was worked in several parts of the island. Father Fernão de Queyroz noted that
there were skilled workmen in Matura.
36
Similarly, Dutch missionary Philippus
Baldeaus noted “excellent workmen in ivory”in Jaffna, and Joan Maetsuyker, the
Governor General from 1646 to 1650 wrote that, “In Candia [Kandy] and other prominent
places there are many artful workmen who make all kinds of splendid things from ivory.”
37
Tusks from the central province of Badulla, and other more southern areas were brought on
bullock carts (tavalams) to Galle, a significant harbor on the southern tip of the island.
Velassa was especially renowned for providing ivory.
38
These sources suggest the existence
of active local demand, developed distribution routes, and highly sophisticated production
techniques even during times predating colonialism.
Ceylonese Ivory Abroad
As with Ceylonese elephants, there was a strong external demand for Ceylonese ivory. Even
under the Portuguese, the kingdom of Kotte was entitled to sixty elephant tusks annually.
The kings of Kandy customarily sent gifts of ivory to other countries.
39
According to
J. W. Bennett, an officer in the British colonial government, “Ceylon ivory is considered
the most valuable for all the purposes of the manufacturer, being whiter, of finer grain,
and retaining its whiteness much longer, than any other.”
40
This opinion was apparently
widely held in Europe, which made ivory from Ceylon “much dearer”than other kinds.
41
Art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy argues that this assessment was equally true in Asia:
“Ceylon ivory is valued in the East above African on account of its density of texture and
33 D'Oyly 1929, p. 109. Especially Veddah (or Vadda) chiefs.
34 Tennent claims, “Buddhist priests have a passion for collecting tusks.”Tennent 1996, vol. 2, p. 273 n. 3.
35 Interview with Edmund Wilson, Deputy Director of the Department of Wildlife, Colombo, Sri Lanka, July
2006.
36 Father Fernão de Queyroz. The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (Colombo: A. C. Richards, Government
Printer, 1930), p. 1135.
37 Coolhaas 1964, pp. 378–79.
38 Bennett 1998, pp. 293, 295, 347. Velassa is Veddah country.
39 Recorded in a tombo in 1599. C. R. De Silva, “Sri Lanka in the Early Sixteenth Century”in K. M. De Silva,
History of Sri Lanka vol. 2, p. 57. See also, e.g., the diary of Jan Harmensz. Bree, in Ferguson 1998, p. 109.
40 Bennett 1998, pp. 259–60.
41 Souter 1818, p. 107.
42 ivory in early modern ceylon

delicacy of tint.”
42
One nineteenth-century writer even claimed that the Ceylonese elephants
were priced above others “on account of the superior quality of the ivory.”
43
This ranking
held until the twentieth century, when, as it was said, “For some unaccountable reason,
Ceylon ivory has been for years past becoming shorter and less valuable than the Indian.”
44
Not only were tusks from Ceylon valued, worked Ceylonese ivory was prized as well.
For example, Linschoten judged the Sinhalese to be “very cunning workmen”in ivory.
45
Baldaeus called Sinhalese ivory carvers “naturally active and ingenious.”
46
Similar senti-
ments were echoed by many other Westerners, including Company soldiers Albrecht
Herport and François Valentijn, the latter of whom noted, “there are many among them
those who are skilled in engraving beautifully in ... ivory ... carving it artistically, as
I have seen entire cabinets covered with ivory and very ingeniously carved.”
47
Like these
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers, in the nineteenth century Joseph Campbell
also described these craftsmen as “neat and ingenious workmen, who can imitate anything
given them as a pattern.”
48
Galle was especially famous for producing handicrafts for the export market. The ivory
carvers there were reputed to have “quite remarkable skill,”but, in Tennent's opinion,
“owing to their deficiency in design, and the want of proper models, their unaided pro-
ductions are by no means in accordance with European tastes.”
49
A generation later, how-
ever, George Kunz felt that, “The finest Cinghalese ivory carving is done at ... Galle.”
50
For
the European (or Europeanized) community things such as bible covers and fans were
carved,
51
while for tourists, ivory carved or inlaid boxes were “so well known that the
crews and passengers of vessels touching at Galle always purchase them as presents for
their friends at home.”
52
Galle was also a center for furniture production, both for export
and for European residents, and some of the furniture made there was inlaid with ivory. For
example, Tennent owned a pair of carved ebony, ivory and porcupine quill book troughs
made in Galle or the vicinity.
53
42 Coomaraswarmy 1979, p. 183.
43 Chitty 1989, p. 34.
44 Watt 1903, p. 174. Smaller tusks are usually the result of over-hunting, because the available elephants are
younger.
45 Burnell 1970, p. 80.
46 Baldaeus 1996, p. 821. He expresses the same sentiments on p. 818.
47 Valentijn 1978, p. 166.
48 Albrecht Herport, Reise Nach Java, Formosa, Vorder-Indien Und Ceylon 1659–1668 (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff,
1930), p. 133. “Man findet hier wunder kunstliche vnd subtile Arbeiter, dien in Helffenbein, hor Ebenholt,
auch in Silber vnd Gold sehr arrtig wüssen zuarbeiten, die doch das vmb ein geringen preiß machen, daß
sie kaum jhre Nahrung darbey können haben,deßwegen sie auch nur für arme Taglöhner gehalten werden.”
Valentijn 1978, p. 166. Campbell 1999, p. 96.
49 Tennent 1996, pp. 108–09.
50 Kunz 1915, p. 117. Galle remained a production center for ivory through most of the twentieth century.
51 Examples are illustrated in Wagenaar 1994, p. 82.
52 Campbell 1999, pp. 96–97. See also, e.g., Binning 1857, vol. 1, p. 4; Baker n.d., p. 293; Kattendyke also noted
that sailors bought “worked elephants' teeth”in Galle as souvenirs, Kattendyke 1860, p. 233.
53 See Jones 2006, pp. 36–43.
martha chaiklin 43

Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, who worked for the Portuguese in Goa, mentions a
Ceylonese ivory cross of fine workmanship brought to Goa in the late sixteenth century:
My master the Archbishop had a crucifixe of Ivorie of an elle long, presented
unto him, by one of the inhabitants of the Isle, and by him so cunningly
and workmanly wrought, that in the hayre, beard, and face, it seemed to be
alive, and in all other parts so neatly wrought and proportioned in lines, that
the like can not be done in Europe.
54
The cross was sent back to the king of Spain, who kept it among his jewels. This high
regard for Ceylonese ivory must have been widely held, because carved ivory caskets in par-
ticular appear to have been used frequently as diplomatic gifts both by the Sinhalese and
Portuguese with connections in Asia during the mid-sixteenth century. These items were
produced in the kingdom of Kotte, but show stylistic links to Afro-Portuguese ivories
from the Atlantic coast.
55
Caskets of this sort can be found in museums all over Europe,
including one in the Schatzkammer Residenz in Munich, one in the Kunsthistorisches
Museum in Vienna, one in the British Museum, nine in the Victoria and Albert and one
in the Ashmolean. Several examples remain in Sri Lanka as well. Among them are caskets
with abstract floral or geometric patterns, but more commonly they were carved with bib-
lical scenes. For the latter type, prints such as those by Albrecht Dürer provided inspiration.
These caskets were not related to indigenous tradition, but more probably made in order to
please foreign dignitaries, at times at their behest.
Another product created in Ceylon and traded in Europe was the ivory fan. Like caskets, these
functioned as a diplomatic gift. Between 1541 and 1549, Catherine of Austria (of the House of
Hapsburg), queen of Portugal, received five ivory fans from Bhuvaneka Bahu VI, king of
Kotte. These fans used in diplomacy are rendered in the same style as fans Buddhist monks
used, with flat leaves that unfold into a full circle. Apparently they were much in favor with
the Queen, who had them placed on display at state occasions. The only other such fans ident-
ified in Europe belonged to Maria of Parma, the Queen's niece.
56
The establishment of Goa as an
ivory producer and diminishing Portuguese influence in Ceylon may explain why ivory objects
exported to Europe by the Portuguese declined by the mid-seventeenth century.
57
Under the Dutch, ivory pipe cases were exported (though not as gifts of diplomacy).
From the sixteenth to the twentieth century there was a widely held custom among
Dutch men of smoking tobacco in long-stemmed clay pipes. The stems made the pipes
very fragile. In Asia, where replacing a pipe or its parts must have been relatively difficult
and expensive, cases were made to protect them. Several of these cases, made in Ceylon in a
composition of carved ivory panels over a wood base, can be found in present-day
European collections.
58
These and the above examples of Ceylonese ivory found in
54 Burnell 1970, p. 81.
55 See Jaffer and Schawbe 1999, pp. 3–14; Silva 2007, p. 287.
56 Jordan 1999, pp. 32–33.
57 Silva 2007, pp. 279–95.
58 See Jaffer 2002, pp. 50–51.
44 ivory in early modern ceylon

European collections indicate both a demand for existing items and the ability of
Ceylonese craftsmen to create products intended to meet European tastes and desires.
dutch ivory trade –official and unofficial
For all periods of colonial rule, trade records about ivory are scant. Just why this should
be the case is somewhat of a mystery, as there is little doubt that ivory was an article
of trade throughout much of the island's history. The Portuguese began trading relations
with Ceylon in 1512, trading in both elephants and ivory.
59
With regard at least to
importation to Europe, many ivory objects were considered miudezas (trifles), which
could be sent without tax or duty; thus they left little record.
60
According to Jan
Huygen van Linschoten, who served as bookkeeper to the archbishop of Goa from 1583
to 1589 and had access to Portuguese records, Ceylon was the source for “many ivorie
bones, and divers Elephantes, which are accounted for the best in all India.”
61
Similarly,
Tomé Pires noted that the Portuguese acquired an “abundance”of ivory in Ceylon and
then traded it to Bengal, Coromandal and Pulicat for things such as rice and white
sandalwood.
62
As the Dutch East India Company (VOC) moved into Ceylon in the seventeenth cen-
tury, they naturally assumed that they would be able to export ivory. There is no doubt
they did, as did the British when they seized control of the island in 1796. Robert Knox
mentions elephants' teeth among the important products of the country.
63
In 1722,
François Valentijn listed “elephants and their tusks”as among the “most important
goods found here.”
64
The same can be said for the first fifty years of British rule, when,
for example, in the mid-nineteenth century, H. C. Ridder Huyssen van Kattendyke, a
Captain-Lieutenant in the Dutch navy, noted that, “the principle products of Ceylon are
now: coffee, sugar, coconut oil and elephants' teeth.”
65
Dutch exports of ivory, however, fell short of expectations. In 1661, for example, the
former Governor of Ceylon, Joan Maetsuyker, wrote to the Heeren XVII, directors of the
Dutch East India Company in the Netherlands, “It is indubitable that there are many ele-
phants on the island Ceylon, and that elephants' teeth must be discoverable here and there
in the forests, but we have never heard of a sufficient quantity to trade. It requires further
investigation.”Maetsuyker thought that perhaps Sinhalese carvers were using up most of
the ivory.
66
Pieter van Dam, in his history of the Dutch East India Company, said that
tusked elephants were sold with their tusks still attached, which reduced the amount of
available ivory. Such would indicate that the demand for tusked elephants trumped that
59 In factory books of 1510–1515. Pieris 1983, vol. 2, p. 43, n. 2.
60 See Boyajian 1993.
61 Burnell 1970, pp. 80–81.
62 Pires 1990, p. 86.
63 Knox 1989, p. 105.
64 Valentijn 1978, p. 184.
65 Kattendyke 1860, p. 233.
66 Coolhaas 1960–2007, vol. 3, pp. 378–79.
martha chaiklin 45

for ivory.
67
Yet the VOC did not give up on the idea of ivory as a trade good. In 1670 the
Company declared a monopoly on ivory. While ivory was but one item on a list of trade
commodities to be monopolized as a part of Company efforts to tighten control of Ceylon
trade, its inclusion on this list shows the belief that it was a profitable commodity.
68
In
1724, the Governor of Ceylon informed the council in Batavia that though existence of
tusks was limited, they were much better than could be obtained from Africa or in
Siam.
69
For a number of years, the Heren XVII tried to increase the amount, but the
Governor of Ceylon never seemed to be able to obtain enough despite “the great numbers
of elephants on Ceylon.”
70
Although the evidence detailing Dutch trade in ivory is sparse, there is no doubt it
existed. When Anthonij Paviljoen left a memoir for his successor in 1665, he wrote,
“Some profit is also derived from elephant tusks, ebony, wax, honey, indigo, black branch
coral, tortoise shell margosa oil, &c. but these do not amount to much and are not of great
importance.”
71
Similarly, in 1762, the English sent an unsuccessful embassy led by John
Pybus to the king of Kandy in order to obtain trading privileges. In his report to George
Pigot, Governor at Madras, Pybus discussed exports under the Dutch: “Wax, Elephants
Teeth, Wild Cardamums are likewise sometimes to be procured, but in such small quan-
tities as scarcely deserve being noticed here.”
72
The amount of trade cannot account for
the scant documentation, because there is better documentation on many of the other com-
modities listed such as ebony, indigo and cardamom. In 1703, moreover, the Heeren XVII
specifically put in a request for ivory. And in 1738 the Governor General of the East Indies
cautioned against substituting ivory from the Cape or Ceylon for Siamese ivory, implying
that such practices had occurred in the past and that supplies were available.
73
There are a number of possible explanations as to why the documentary trail is so indis-
tinct. One is that the Dutch factory records in Sri Lanka have suffered considerably over the
years, both from climate and from initial negligence by the English. Most notably, at the
end of the eighteenth century the records of the dessave burned. The dessave was an office
unique to Ceylon, based on a traditional Sinhalese post but filled by a European. The des-
save was responsible for local affairs, which included the administration of matters related
to elephants. Because profits from the sale of elephants were in fact considered “revenues
derived from the country”,
74
it is quite possible that much of the information on ivory was
kept in dessave records. In fact, the dessave was supposed to receive a tribute of eight tusks a
year from the Vanniars.
75
Revenues for cinnamon did not appear in local records, but only
67 van Dam 1932, Second Book, Part II, p. 319.
68 The Dutch only attempted to monopolize profitable products, because there were expenses associated with
maintaining a monopoly.
69 Sri Lankan National Archives 1/795. Hereafter abbreviated as SNLA.
70 SNLA 1/808, 1/809.
71 Pieters 1908, p. 115.
72 Raven-Hart 2001, p. 18.
73 Coolhaas, vol. 6 (1976), p. 253; vol. 10 (2004), p. 164.
74 Pieters 1910, p. 11.
75 D'Oyly 1929, p. 110.
46 ivory in early modern ceylon

in the profits from the Netherlands.
76
While cinnamon was an exception to the rule of
local profitability reportage, it is possible that ivory was another such exception.
A further possibility is that much of the trade in ivory was illegal, conducted clandes-
tinely as deceptive bookkeeping, private trade, or smuggling by either notoriously under-
paid Company employees or independent traders. Private trade was when Company
servants traded on their own account in absolute violation of Company rules. Company
servants could be, and sometimes were, bribed. A relatively low-volume, high-profit item
like ivory, carved or uncarved, was ideal for private trade. In other VOC factories, there
is evidence of misrepresentation of ivory sales prices, and it is possible that similar prac-
tices were carried out in Ceylon, which would facilitate private trade.
77
Smuggling was an ongoing nuisance to all the colonial powers. While the island of
Ceylon, from ancient times, had been connected with numerous trading networks of Asia,
with the arrival of the Europeans trading patterns were altered considerably. The
Europeans (especially the Dutch) generally attempted to restrict the number of ports and
to reduce the number of foreign traders. Neither Portuguese nor Dutch attempts to monopol-
ize trade in Ceylon were ever very effective; rather, they essentially were ignored. The Dutch
attempted to clamp down on smuggling by reissuing restrictive measures in 1734 but these
seemed to have had little effect. Although ships were dispatched to cruise the area in the
straits, this tactic was equally ineffective because smugglers used smaller ships and operated
at river mouths. Spy networks and increasingly harsh penalties did little to deter smuggling.
78
Ships from all the European nations traded in Colombo and Galle throughout the eight-
eenth century. Despite various attempts by the Dutch to place strict limitations on foreign
ships, there was never any time when the vessels of other nations did not call. Portuguese
merchants traveling from Goa would stop at Galle on their way to Macao to purchase goods
for the Chinese market, including ivory.
79
While some of this trade was legal or at least
tacitly permitted, some was willfully illegal. Galle was a notorious stopping point for smug-
glers.
80
Local traders also docked there, and when they were caught smuggling ivory it was
impounded and shipped to Europe.
81
In the early eighteenth century, the Dutch colonial
government established control posts off the Jaffna peninsula (such as that at
Mullaititivu) in order to combat the smuggling of elephant tusks, among other things,
to South India.
82
In 1716, Governor Hendrick Becker specifically cautioned his successor
about ivory smuggling from Jaffna, suggesting the area be closely guarded to maintain
the Company monopoly.
83
Both Dutch officials and modern scholars suspected that
76 Arasaratnam 1995, p. 402.
77 There is evidence of under-reporting of profits in other parts of the Dutch East India Company trading
empire. In Japan, prices of ivory were reduced in the company books. See Hendrik Doeff, Herinneringen uit
Japan (Haarlem: Froncois Bohn, 1833), p. 63.
78 S. Arasartnam 1995, “The Consolidation of Dutch Power in the Maritime Regions 1658–1867,”p. 239.
79 Arasaratnam 1995, p. 413.
80 Bruijn 1987, 1, p. 133.
81 Coolhaas, vol. 6, p. 444.
82 Nelson and De Silva 2004, p. 102.
83 Anthonisz 1914, p. 16.
martha chaiklin 47

the king of Kandy was actively involved in smuggling as a means to subvert Dutch
authority.
84
Dutch relations with the kingdom of Kandy were always problematic. When looking at the
history of Sri Lanka under the Dutch, it is important to remember that the island was not
entirely under their control. After the Portuguese arrived in 1518 “warfare was almost contin-
ual.”
85
Summarized broadly, three main kingdoms existed: Kotte, Kandy and Jaffna. Torn by fac-
tionalism and succession disputes, Kotte was subjugated by the Portuguese at the end of the
sixteenth century; Jaffna came under Dutch control when the Portuguese were expelled in
1658; and Kandy remained a separate kingdom until the British crushed it in 1815. Relations
between Kandy and the Dutch never stabilized, in part because Kandy was not interested in
cooperating with Dutch ideals of monopoly. In 1751, Governor Julius Stein van Gollenesse out-
lined Dutch-Kandyan relations as follows: “I am of the opinion that they prefer the Dutch
Companyabove all European nations ...but it appears clear t o me that they would much rather
have us leave the island entirely to have a free trade carried on intheir land.”Gollenesse blamed
the Kandyans for protecting Muslim smugglers who undermined Company trade.
86
Kandy was significant both as a source of tusks and for ivory carving. The king of
Kandy valued tusks, and received them each year as tribute from those not under his direct
rule, as well as from the Dutch. Tusks not put to use were stored in his treasure house.
87
Little information exists regarding how many of the tusks were stockpiled and how many
were used, but when the British captured Kandy in 1815, they confiscated 289 tusks from
this site, weighing a total of 5,951½lb.
88
A“curious”ebony cabinet inlaid with ivory was
also found among his possessions.
89
In order to access royal ivory supplies, the Dutch first
signed a treaty with Rajasinha, king of Kandy, in May of 1638. In Article Nine of this treaty,
the Dutch requested that the king sell ivory only to them.
90
In August of that same year,
Dutch colonial officials, in a gesture that perhaps indicates an awareness that elephants
were traditionally the domain of the king, successfully submitted a petition to Rajasinha
that allowed Rajasinha to maintain the monopoly on ivory. It requested that the king pro-
vide a purchasing price.
91
The negotiations ultimately resulted in an agreement to sell, but
it did not establish a fixed price.
92
In later negotiations the Dutch tried to monopolize ivory
but the Kandyans would have none of it. Finally, a revolt in 1761 allowed the Dutch colo-
nial government to extract a treaty from the Kandyans in which Kandyan export ivory
would be sold exclusively to the Company at pre-determined prices.
93
84 See e.g. Riemers 1946, p. 16.
85 De Queyroz, Temporal and Spiritual Conquest, p. 1192.
86 Arasartnam 1974, pp. 45, 47.
87 Knox 1989, p. 154.
88 Bennett 1998, p. 259.
89 Codrington 1995, p. 262.
90 Reimers 1927, p. 44. The same language appears in article 12 of the May Treaty, ibid, p. 56.
91 Pieris 1929, pp. 57–59. Interestingly, this is the same strategy suggested by de Queyroz in Temporal and
Spiritual Conquest, vol. 2, p. 1159.
92 Coolhaas 1960, vol. 1, p. 722.
93 De Silva 1995, 1, p. 6.
48 ivory in early modern ceylon

Very few specific, quantitative records of ivory have been discovered in the National
Archives in Sri Lanka. Perhaps the most significant was in the annex of the Annual
Compendium of 1752, which contained a cargo list that specified the following ivory exports:
January Westhoren to Batavia 16
=
8lb and two pieces
April Cornelia “25½lb
Mij Schellege “25½lb and four pieces
94
While it may seem odd that ivory appears once, only one other similar document, dating
from 1758, was found in these annexes.
95
If supplies were irregular, it would not be unu-
sual to miss a year. A mention of 244 tusks was also found in an account book of 1788.
96
Dutch East India Company archives outside of Sri Lanka might bear more fruit, but the
official sources in Sri Lanka are sparse enough to suggest that with regard to ivory unoffi-
cial trade was more significant than the official trade channels.
Obtaining Ivory
Just how ivory was obtained in Sri Lanka is not entirely clear. J. W. Bennett, a civil servant in
the English government, wrote that, “Elephant tusks have been occasionally found in the jun-
gle, but whether it be done by the animals themselves, or, for concealment, by the natives, is
hitherto hypothetical.”
97
Traveler Jacob Haafner also tells of passing “the entire carcass of an
elephant, which lay near the path,”adding that, “The animal must have been long dead; it had
however, beautiful teeth ...”.
98
Another raconteur asserts that elephants “in flight will fall
upon their tusks, their own impetus and weight snapping them off close to the sockets.”
99
It was believed by the Sinhalese that the pain from caries (a bacteria-driven bone disorder)
caused elephants to break off their own tusks in order to ease their anguish.
100
Another strong
possibility was periodic epizootics.
101
Because elephants were so highly valued as draft animals and in contexts of religious
ceremonies, they generally were not hunted for sport. In Kandy elephants were the
king's monopoly, so hunting was expressly forbidden. The slaughter of tusked elephants
was considered to be among “the most heinous offenses.”
102
Such strict prohibition does
not mean, of course, that hunting never occurred. In 1683, for example, Christopher
Schwitzer, a German employee of the Company, went elephant hunting in Kandy.
94 SLNA 1/2758
95 SLNA 1/2766.
96 SLNA 1/3481.
97 Bennett 1998, p. 260.
98 Haafner 1995, p. 21. In the 1870s naturalist William Hornaday, who was collecting specimens, managed to
find several skeletons in the jungle. He comments that the locals were too lazy to take the teeth to sell in
Galle; see Hornaday 1929, p. 276.
99 Sirr 1991, p. 196.
100 Kunz 1915, p. 223.
101 See Dijk 2007, p. 242, n. 243.
102 D'Oyly 1929, p. 53.
martha chaiklin 49

Although he shot an elephant, it escaped. The next morning, however, the elephant was
found dead, and he was forced to lie that the elephant had pursued him because, he
explained, “it is strictly forbidden to shoot any elephants unless a man is in danger of
his Life.”Significantly, Schwitzer did not get in trouble, but the Company took possession
of the tusks.
103
Other indications of poaching can be found in the memoirs of Governor
Hendrik Brower who noted, “it would be impossible to obtain so many of these animals
[elephants] in our land, because they ... are perhaps killed for the sake of the tusks.
104
An exception to the no-hunting rule appears to have been the Veddah (Vadda) people
of the Batticaloa region in the eastern provinces of the island. The Veddah are a
non-Sinhalese, non-Tamil group who comprised only a small portion of the population.
105
Later anthropologists classified them into groups such as “rock”,“village”and “coastal”,
referring in part to their level of assimilation, but even very early observers such as
Robert Knox noted that some groups had assimilated into Sinhalese culture more than
others.
106
The so-called rock Veddah, who resided in the jungle, were known to have
hunted elephants, “both for their own protection and on account of the ivory, so valuable
to them as an article of barter.”
107
In more distant areas the practice does not appear to
have been restricted to Veddah. For example, in Nurwerakalawe, if a stranger killed an ele-
phant, they were given the right to one tusk, but the other had to be given to the local
village. Within the village the chief would appropriate the ivory, usually for his own
use.
108
Among the Vedda, archery was the most widely observed method of hunting; one of the
most coveted articles ivory was traded for was the arrowhead.
109
The bow was drawn either
by hand or the feet, and armed with broad, iron-tipped arrows fletched with red peacock
wing feathers.
110
The hunters would aim for the fleshy part under the front leg in order
first to disable the elephant.
111
Another traditional method for capturing elephants used
in Sri Lanka until comparatively recent times was noosing. Evidence that the Veddah
employed this technique is that one important Veddah spirit, Rerangala Yaka, was
famed for this ability. Still, the technique generally is associated with the Tamils and
Muslims.
112
There were two variations. In one version of noosing, the hunter would
chase after the elephant, and after slipping the leather noose (atmaddoo, or hand snare)
103 Fayle 1929, pp. 252–53.
104 Anthonisz 1914, p. 24.
105 According to Haeckel, they were the smallest ethnic group, at 2,000, only half the estimated 4,000 Europeans
and well under the 1.5 million Sinhalese; Haeckel 1881, p. 91. An estimate from 1856 was only 364; see Bailey
1863, p. 282.
106 Knox 1989, p. 189.
107 Bailey 1863, p. 288.
108 D'Oyly 1929, p. 109.
109 Sirr 1991, p. 217.
110 Campbell claims poison was used, but there does not seem to be any other mention of poison; Campbell 1999,
p. 57, Baker 1904, p. 110. Many writers claim they were poor shots.
111 Bailey 1863, p. 288.
112 Seligmann and Seligmann 1911, p. 163. He actually is invoked to prevent sickness because he died at a great
age.
50 ivory in early modern ceylon

around a hind leg, would immediately tie it around a tree. Once ensnared, the elephant
would crash to the ground. In the second, (called gasmaddoo, or tree snare) the noose
was left on the ground, and pulled when the elephant stepped into it.
113
Noosing was
more widely practiced in the north.
114
Sinhalese practice utilized nooses that were made
as a form of taxation by the Rodiya, a low caste.
115
In fact, in the eighteenth century the
Dutch outlawed noosing because it often resulted in severe injuries to the elephant. The
ban did not put an end to the practice, however.
The Veddah traded ivory, along with other products of the forest such as deer meat,
honey and beeswax to other residents of Ceylon for cloth and arrowheads. Trade did not
occur in the marketplace. Rather, the Veddah paid in kind outside the smith or merchant's
house with “a leaf cut in the form they will have their Arrows made,”or other notation.
116
Although not subjects of the king of Kandy, the Veddah were required to supply elephant
tusks as part of their tribute to him.
117
As a result, Knox wrote, in order to initiate trade
“they will acknowledg his Officers and will bring to them Elephants-Teeth”.
118
The
Veddah thus were responsible for a steady stream of ivory into the marketplace.
The most common method used to obtain elephants was a sort of roundup known as an
elephant “hunt”(in Dutch, jacht). Although the primary purpose of this elephant hunt was
not to obtain ivory, it would certainly have provided another source of ivory due to the inevi-
table deaths it caused. The practice supposedly originated in India, but had been carried out
in Ceylon long before the Dutch arrived. It was sometimes organized by the king of Kandy,
and sometimes by the colonial powers, usually in the central and south parts of the island.
The elephants were chased into a large, fenced-in enclosure, a kraal. Kraals were considered
better than noosing because, in the latter practice, elephants often become crippled as they
fought against the restraints.
119
These hunts were organized by the dessave. The particulars
varied according to time and place, but elephants so captured would then be led out
one-by-one to be tamed for work and trade. Tuskers were always desirable because they
obtained higher prices, so every effort would have been made to capture and retain them.
When captured, pipes and drums accompanied them as they were led to the stables.
120
According to one observer, it was at this point that the tuskers had the ends of their
tusks cut off, a process known as tipping.
121
It is unlikely these tips were discarded.
113 According to Major Forbes, they were made of bullock hide, but English documents refer to providing ammu-
nition to hunt deer and elk, from whose hides these nooses were made. See Forbes 1994, vol. 1, p. 278, vol. 2,
pp. 57–58 and SLNA 7/23ff. p. 22 and 7/29ff. p. 162. The ropes were made by the Rodiya caste. This method is
described in Knox 1989, p. 80, among others. Rodiya were by traditional makers of rope. See, e.g., Raghavan
1957, p. 4.
114 See, e.g., Anthonisz 1915, p. 27.
115 Davy 1990, pp. 129–30.
116 Knox 1989, p. 190. See also Tennent 1996, p. 440 and Percival 1990, p. 275. These practices are verified by
much later accounts. See e.g. Randow 1958, pp. 164–66.
117 Forbes 1994, vol. 2, p. 78.
118 Knox 1989, p. 190.
119 See, e.g., ibid., p. 360.
120 Forbes 1994, vol. 2, p. 66.
121 Strachan 1702, p. 1053.
martha chaiklin 51

By the end of the eighteenth century the elephant trade dwindled, due in part to declin-
ing demand for war elephants, but the British revived the roundups. Initially they tried to
trade them, sending shipments of elephants to Madras, but the majority of their business
was providing tame elephants for public works projects such as road building and railway
construction. One hunt was even organized in 1881 for the pleasure of a visiting Edward
VII. The last elephant hunt was held in 1950 at Panamura. By this time, the events had
become a matter of public spectacle. So-called “kraal towns”would mushroom around
the site. Thus, when the necessity of shooting a recalcitrant elephant arose, there were
many witnesses. Public outcry finally led to the end of this practice in Sri Lanka.
Kraals were seen as more humane than noosing, but inadvertent death in the kraaling
and subsequent three-month taming process was high.
122
Some elephants died in the
initial stampede into the kraal, or from insufficient food or water in the enclosure,
where they would sometimes wait for weeks until they could be led out between two
tame elephants. Of those driven into the kraal, estimates put the number of survivors at
only 40–50%.
123
More elephants died during the taming process. According to British
doctor John Davy, “more than half of those caught, die during their confinement: they
seem to pine for the lost blessing of liberty: they refuse to eat, and generally die of star-
vation.”
124
In one hunt conducted under the British
One Hundred & Twenty Six as the number of those driven in to the great kraal,
of whom seventeen died in the stable, thirteen in the water kraal, & three more
shot as it was found impossible to make them go into the cage & they delayed
the capture of the others. Twenty one were on the road to Tangalle & seventy
two kraals, eighty three or nearly that number may therefore be considered as
the quantity of elephants gained by government in the present hunt.
125
These figures were sent in a dispatch from Fredric North to show how effective improve-
ments such as smaller kraals and better water supplies had been. Thirty more died from
“bruising & long fasting during the taming process.”
126
Although these figures represent
a mortality rate of about 58%, North bragged of a high survival rate. Even if only 7% of
the animals had tusks in early modern times, nearly every hunt must have yielded some
tusks. In one report back to the Netherlands in 1729, it was noted that eighty-one tusks
had been obtained via the kraal method.
127
Only one source, penned by Pieter van Dam, discusses the outcome of the tusks taken
from elephants that died as a result of kraals:
The teeth of those who die in their stalls in Jaffnapatnam were brought to the
warehouses of the Company and put on the account of the inland revenues, but
122 Ibid., p. 55.
123 SLNA 5/1ff. 211–15: Percival 1990, p. 283.
124 Davy 1990, p. 360.
125 SLNA 5/1ff. p. 226.
126 Ibid.
127 SLNA 1/796.
52 ivory in early modern ceylon

those that die in the forest, the hunters keep for themselves, or give to the
Wannias
128
while some come to the castle with a tooth, saying that they
wish to present it to the commander, but also now and then they can be pur-
chased but these are generally so few, that at the most no more than 70 or 80
pounds can be obtained.
129
The Company was not adverse to the idea of slaughtering elephants for tusks, should that
prove more profitable than selling the elephants.
130
While the British continued many of the practices of the Dutch, one significant new
introduction was the hunting of elephants for sport. According to Samuel Baker, there
was a “peculiar excitement which attends elephant-shooting beyond all other sports.”He
did, however, also note that, “One of the most disgusting sights is a dead elephant ...
The gas generated in the inside distends the carcass to an enormous size, until at length
it bursts and becomes in a few hours afterwards one living heap of maggots.”
131
This
change in the nature and purpose of hunting would have a devastating effect on elephants,
and, consequently, the ivory supply. It remained very much the occupation of the colonists.
Local sportsmen rarely hunted elephants except when necessary to destroy a rogue or to
protect fields, and even that was a last resort.
132
Sport hunters would either employ beaters to flush out their quarry, or in what was
seen as the manlier alternative, track them into the jungle.
133
In the 1820s there was an
Englishman named Farrell who ran a hunting lodge in Hambantota equipped with “several
fine horses, upwards of eight greyhounds, besides other dogs of various breeds.”
134
Perhaps
most infamous of all the hunters was Major Thomas William Rogers (1804?–1845) of the
Ceylon Regiment, who was credited with killing between 1,300 and 1,600 elephants –he
stopped counting after 1,300!
135
According to one visitor, “His whole house is filled with
ivory ... At each door of his verandah stand huge tusks, while, in his dining room,
128 The Vanniars are a Tamil caste in the north responsible for local administration.
129 Van Dam 1932, 2nd book part II, p. 319. Jaffnapatnam is presently known as Jaffna.
130 SNLA 1/794 Letter from the bewindhebbers to the Heren XVII to Batavia, 21 July 1723. The context is that when
elephants were not sold, they tended to eat more than their worth by the next sales season, so it was better to
send on the tusks to Surat.
131 Baker 1904, pp. 252, 253.
132 Julius 2004, p. 157.
133 Forbes 1994, vol. 1, p. 285.
134 Campbell 1999, p. 56.
135 Cumming 1892, vol. 1, p. 219. Cumming claims he died in 1843, but this appears to be an error. The
memorial dedicated to Rogers in the church at Batticaloa reads: A.D. 1845, THIS CHURCH WAS
ERECTED TO THE HONOUR OF GOD, In Memory of THOMAS WILLIAM ROGERS, Major, Ceylon Rifle
Regiment, Assistant Government Agent and District Judge of Badulla, By All Classes of His Friends and
Admirers. He was killed by lightning at Hapootalle June 7th 1845, Aged 41 “In the midst of life, we are in
Death.”
Apparently his spur attracted the lightning. Death by lightning was seen as proof that he was
larger than life, as he had been attacked by an elephant and was severely injured yet survived. One story
had it that a Buddhist monk had cursed him. Reputedly his grave in Nura Elliya also was struck
by lightning repeatedly. See Hensoldt 1894–1895. Rogers was Irish and graduated from the Royal College
in 1824.
martha chaiklin 53

every corner is adorned with high piles of similar trophies.”
136
If the quarry had no tusks,
its tail was cut off as a trophy.
137
In addition, Rogers reputedly used the ivory from his
exploits to buy his commission.
138
So while some hunters kept the tusks, the income
Rogers derived suggests that successful hunters also sold some of the tusks they obtained.
Elephants were regarded as trophies because they are not terribly easy to kill. Special brass
shot (sometimes zinc) was used because the normal lead balls flattened too easily, and even
then had to enter the eye or nose socket, or the ear hole. They had to be fired at a distance of no
more than twenty yards.
139
Rogers used special 5oz shot.
140
More than one sportsman, fru-
strated by his inability to bring down an elephant, went to the Colombo Medical Museum
to examine elephant skulls in order to figure out how to kill them.
141
If a tusker was caught,
the tusks were usually sawed off, but sometimes the head would be buried or left to decay so
that the tusks could be removed intact.
142
The tusks were certainly a much more attractive
trophy than a tail, so the desire for tuskers was high.
british ivory trade and the effects of
colonial policy
After the conquest of Kandy, the British enjoyed a secure hold on the island, and thus using
tribute, and trade, could continue trade in ivory. Regarding ivory trade, both Dutch and
British documentation is scant; of the two, however, the British have somewhat more. It
appears that the main commercial concerns of the British colonial government were
with products that could be exploited by way of a plantation system, such as tea, coffee,
cinnamon and indigo. Thus they initially dealt with ivory through taxation. In the early
years of British rule, a heavy duty was imposed of two-thirds the value of all the ivory col-
lected in Kandy, but this was before they actually had control of the area.
143
Early in the
nineteenth century, an export duty of one rupee per pound was levied.
144
Ivory ornaments
were also one of the items subject to the “joy tax”, a very unpopular levy on personal luxu-
ries instituted by Governor Fredric North in 1800.
In the early years of British rule, it appears not much data was collected on ivory
exports.
145
In 1832, a recommendation came down from the colonial government
136 Hoffmeister 1844, pp. 166–67.
137 See, e.g. Forbes 1994, vol. 1, pp. 140, 288–89.
138 Tennent 1861, p. 142. He attributes to Rogers 1,400 kills.
139 About hunting with zinc, see Campbell 1999, vol. 1, p. 310. Zinc is part of the alloy of metals from which
brass is composed, and is still often used in bullet jackets because it is thought to improve accuracy.
Samuel Baker, however, still thought lead was best, but he appears to have been in the minority. Baker n.
d., p. 115.
140 Hensoldt 1894–1895, p. 72.
141 E.g. Forbes 1994, vol. 1, pp. 131–32; Clark 1971, p. 19.
142 Skinner 1995, p. 16; Campbell 1999, pp. 277–79; Clark 1971, p. 23.
143 SLNA 5/18ff. p. 160.
144 Milburn 1813, vol. 1, p. 348.
145 The Ceylon Blue Books for the years 1821–1824 list ivory as a commodity but read “the necessary data was not
collected.”
54 ivory in early modern ceylon

that the special tax on ivory be repealed, that it be made subject to the same general export
duty as everything else, and that revenue of £50 be noted for the crown from the sale of
elephant tusks.
146
In the following year, the commercial monopoly of the East India
Company was ended, and Robert Percival of the English 19th Regiment reported that
“Moors and Malabars”exported ivory from Colombo, but with a 5% duty.
147
It is interest-
ing that by this time ivory revenues (£57) almost equaled those from live elephants
(£61).
148
By 1825, the British had begun recording export data. Ivory, the data indicate, was
exported every year: As Table 1 shows, Tennent, the Colonial Secretary of Ceylon from
1845 to 1850 who claimed each year “five or six hundred weight”
149
of tusks were being
Table 1. Ivory Exports from Ceylon 1825–1850
Year To Great Britain Other areas Total Other ivory products
1825 362 lb 735 lb 1097 lb 4 ivory images + 1 elephant
head to Gt Britain; 1 base +
2 statues to other
British colonies
1826 488 lb 68½lb 556½lb
1827 383½lb 502 lb 885½lb
1828 41 lb 334 lb 375 lb
1829 65 lb 1031 lb 1096 lb
1830 596 lb 124 lb 720 lb
1831 307 lb 3065 lb 3375 lb
1832 334 lb 579 lb 913 lb
1833 563 lb 256 lb 819 lb
1834 45 lb 592 lb 637 lb 8 elephants
1835 414½lb 234 ¾lb 649½lb
1836 1886 lb
1837 363½lb
1838 illegible 82 pieces, cut 32 pieces
1839* 1240 lb 142 lb
1840 cwt 10.3.4 cut ivory 49.18.1
1841 9.1½37.4.6
1842* cwt 1.2.0 1 package
1843* 205 lb 307 lb 512 lb
1844 In conservation, not available
1845 1054 lb 1054 lb
1846 540 lbs 50½lb 590½lb
1847 7.2.48 143.22.6
1848* 299 lb 50 lb 249 lb 2 elephants
1849 184 lb and one package
1850* 141 lb 85 lb 226 lb
*
Data from Ceylon Government Gazette 1825–1850.
146 Mendes 1956, 1, p. 292.
147 Percival 1990, p. 117.
148 Mendes 1956, vol. 2, pp. 103, 287.
149 A hundredweight was one-tenth of a ton, or about 112 lb.
martha chaiklin 55

imported from Ceylon into Great Britain was, at best, providing an average figure.
150
Because supplies were erratic, sometimes there were significantly more than this and
sometimes less; likewise it was probably difficult at times to determine the amount because
of irregular counting practices, e.g. quantities were recorded sometimes in weight, sometimes
in number of tusks. However, the overall quantity did drop significantly later in the century, a
change that directly correlates with a noticeable drop in the number of elephants.
151
Destinations
In addition to Europe and India, a significant destination for ivory exported from Ceylon
appears to have been China. Travelers from China such as the monk Faxian had visited
Ceylon as early as the turn of the fifth century. Large numbers of Chinese ceramics
from this period found in Sri Lanka attest to the conduct of trade. During the Song dynasty
(960–1279) in particular, there appear to have been regular trading relations.
152
European
involvement in moving ivory to China was documented by Linschoten, who mentions
“ivorie bones”as products that sold well for the Portuguese in Macao.
153
Initially tra-
ditional middlemen appear to have been responsible, but as the British established them-
selves in East Asia, more direct routes were developed.
154
Tennent blamed China as a reason for the lack of more exports to Europe.
155
As the
British were by this time firmly established in Canton, and later Hong Kong, it would
have made sense for them to follow traditional trading patterns. Trading within the
Crown Colonies would have cut down on paperwork too. Moreover, for most applications
East Asian craftsmen preferred the finer-grained Asian elephant ivory. By the time the
British occupied Ceylon, China had developed an enormous appetite for ivory, fueled by
both strong internal demand and a thriving export industry.
Dwindling Supplies
In 1859, Tennent suggested that had more Sri Lankan elephants borne tusks, they long
since would have been exterminated for their ivory.
156
Likewise, Samuel W. Baker, one
of the best-known sport hunters in ninteenth-century Ceylon, attributes the decline in
the Sri Lankan elephant population to the demand for ivory.
157
Much more significant,
however, was the conscious effort to place their habitat under cultivation, which by
both accident and design resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of elephants.
Even today, crop damage by wild elephants is an ongoing aspect of the strained relations
150 Tennent 1996, vol. 2, p. 273, n. 3.
151 “There is not so many elephants to be met with now as formerly”; Campbell 1999, p. 263.
152 Furber 1976, p. 142.
153 Burnell 1970, p. 145.
154 De Bussche 1999, p. 106.
155 Tennent 1996, vol. 2, p. 273, n. 3.
156 Ibid.
157 Baker 1904, p. ix.
56 ivory in early modern ceylon

between wild elephants and stationary human agricultural populations. In colonial
Ceylon, the elephants destroyed fields, ate crops and killed workers. The reduction of
the elephant population was regarded as a necessity. The British, who sought to promote
an economy based on plantation labor, found intrusions by elephants especially irksome.
The policy of agricultural development was especially strong during the 1830s, under the
administration of Governor Robert Wilmont Horton. Initially, the effort to reduce ele-
phants was seen as a success. The government profited through fees for hunting licenses
and was able to open up more land for cultivation. However, the decline of the elephant
population was precipitous. In the late 1840s Samuel W. Baker noted,
The government reward for the destruction of elephants in Ceylon was for-
merly ten shillings per tail; it is now reduced to seven shillings in some dis-
tricts, and is altogether abolished in others, as the number killed was so
great that the government imagined they could not afford the annual outlay.
Although the number of these animals is still so immense in Ceylon, they
must nevertheless have been much reduced within the last twenty years.
158
Similarly, in 1859 Tennent observed, “They have entirely disappeared from districts in
which they were formerly numerous.”
159
This sharp decline resulted in some of the earliest wildlife legislation anywhere in the
world. In 1870 the Elephant Protection Act was passed, in an attempt to reverse the trend.
In that same year, an export duty of £20 per head was placed on elephant exports, a
measure which effectively halted the trade.
160
In 1891, Ordinance no. 10 was passed in
order “to prevent the wanton destruction of elephants, buffaloes and other game.”
Hunting tuskers was expressly prohibited.
161
By the turn of the twentieth century, licen-
sing fees alone made elephant hunting the sport of “foreign princes and noblemen and mil-
lionaire globe-trotters.”
162
Even in 1907, however, the decline of elephant populations
caused by destruction of habitat continued to be noted.
163
Other measures were passed,
such as the 1937 ban of elephant hunting for sport.
164
Conservation measures led to the end of ivory carving in Sri Lanka, and today it is no
longer openly practiced. As early as 1850 Henry Sirr complained, “this art is falling into
decay and disuse,”recounting that:
The Kandians formerly used drinking-cups of ivory, which were so extremely
thin, as to be rendered perfectly transparent and pliable; a friend having one
158 Baker n.d., p. 107. In this book Baker notes several times how their number has decreased.
159 Tennent 1996, vol. 2, pp. 272–73.
160 Hornaday 1929, p. 228.
161 Licenses cost 100 rupees. If a tusker was shot without a license, the fine was 1,000 rupees. Exemptions were
granted for rogue elephants. Clark 1971, p. 95.
162 Clark 1971, p. 19.
163 Julius 2004, p. 157.
164 Martin and Stiles 2002, p. 20.
martha chaiklin 57

of these remarkable vessels in his possession, we were most desirous to obtain a
similar specimen, but to our dismay were informed by a Kandian chief, that he
knew but of one old man living in the interior, who could fabricate these cur-
ious cups, and that he was too ill to work. A short time afterwards we heard of
the death of the old man in question, and with him the art is said to have died,
as he refused to impart his secret to any living being, and we can only hope for
the sake of posterity that our informant had been misled in this respect.
165
While mourning over a lost past is a commonly held sentiment, the definite decline in the
craft of ivory carving resulted from a change of demands. Writing in 1908, Ananda
Coomaraswamy attributed this phenomenon in great part to British destruction of the tra-
ditional system of state-sponsored craftsmen.
166
As early as 1955, one authority viewed
ivory carving as “more or less extinct”for the last twenty years; another authority called
the death of artist Utuwankande Swarnatilake in the 1970s the loss of the “last champion”.
Blame was placed on the inability of craftsmen to receive proper payment for the time it
took to produce quality ivory carvings.
167
It may very well be that these problems all led to
the decline of quality work in ivory, but tourist art in Sri Lanka continued to be produced
in large quantities, relying partially on imports of tusk from Africa.
168
Wildlife protection laws were tightened in 1964, going so far as to prohibit ownership
of even a part of a tusk, and from the late 1970s onward serious efforts were made to
enforce these laws. As a consequence, even the production of curios for tourists eventually
ceased. By 1979, the Sri Lankan ivory industry had become one of the smallest in Asia.
169
The passage of CITES more or less brought all Sri Lankan ivory carving to a halt. The only
use I was able to discern in present-day Sri Lanka was the practice of ornamenting the cas-
ket dais at funerals with whole, undecorated tusks mounted in ebony stands. It appears that
even some of these are imitation.
conclusion
In literate societies we are inclined to trust paperwork; for a large, bureaucratic institution
such as the East India Company, one might conclude that if something is not documented,
it may never have happened. At first glance, the documentary history of decline in Sri
Lankan ivory over the past 150 years would seem to support the idea that there was no
significant ivory trade to be discovered. The scarcity in Sri Lanka of elephants in general,
and tusked elephants in particular might even lead one to believe that there never was suf-
ficient ivory to trade.
Any good historian questions his or her sources; in this case there is much to learn
because physical, anecdotal and extra-official sources all support different, and at times
165 Sirr 1991, pp. 265–66.
166 Coomaraswamy 1979, p. vi.
167 Deraniyagala 1955, p. 306 and Gunasekre 1977, p. 156.
168 Sri Lankan carvers started using imports from Africa in 1910. See Santiapillai et al. 1999, p. 176.
169 Martin and Martin 1990, p. 5.
58 ivory in early modern ceylon

contradictory, stories. It is apparent that when their populations are not under duress, even
tuskless elephants are able to provide a significant amount of ivory. Although later
sport-hunting practices were a contributing factor, habitat destruction was equally if not
more significant in the reduction of ivory resources. It is unlikely that the Dutch East
India Company would have ignored a trading opportunity that they were aware of and,
later, was successfully exploited by the British. There was sufficient supply, distribution
and demand to make ivory trade both possible and desirable, as well as a high level of indi-
genous craftsmanship to provide both fine exports and sailor's souvenirs until the twenti-
eth century. The East India Company's archives are vast and scattered; further examination
of other archives may reveal more information. But even without accounting books and
cargo lists, the abundance of other evidence that remains suggests that ivory trade, based
upon carved and uncarved forms, and carried out through official and unofficial channels,
was a constant in early modern Ceylon.
To what extent early modern Ceylonese ivory trade was significant on a global scale
cannot presently be determined, because so little is known about the trading patterns of
ivory for most of the regions of Asia.
170
Still, as a product, it certainly was known and
appreciated in both East Asia and the West. It is not a matter of blind faith to accept
that ivory played a significant role in the political, economic and cultural landscape of
early modern Ceylon; it is rather a matter of looking beyond Company documents.
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