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Updated: May 14, 2025
Elephants were so commonly placed in front of Indian palaces and fortresses that, except for this story, there would be no need to suppose any connection between those at Agra and those at Delhi. Purchas, quoting William Finch who visited Agra in Jahangir's time, describes the elephants at the Hathi Pol, but gives a different origin to the statues.
"They were reaped by me and by my three sons," said Hathi. "And to the ploughing that follows the reaping?" said Mowgli. "There was no ploughing," said Hathi. "And to the men that live by the green crops on the ground?" said Mowgli. "They went away." "And to the huts in which the men slept?" said Mowgli. "We tore the roofs to pieces, and the Jungle swallowed up the walls," said Hathi.
It passes through the gateway called the Hathi Pol, or Elephant Gate, from the two great stone elephants, mutilated by Aurangzîb, standing on either side of the outer archway.
"It is the outer wall that must lie down," and Mowgli, with the rain sluicing over his bare shoulders and arms, leaped back from a wall that was settling like a tired buffalo. "All in good time," panted Hathi. "Oh, but my tusks were red at Bhurtpore; To the outer wall, children! With the head! Together! Now!"
The jackal may follow the Tiger, but, Cub, when thy whiskers are grown, Remember the Wolf is a hunter go forth and get food of thine own. Keep peace with the Lords of the Jungle the Tiger, the Panther, the Bear; And trouble not Hathi the Silent, and mock not the Boar in his lair.
No one but the long-lived elephant could plan and carry through such a war. "Let them run as the men ran from the fields of Bhurtpore, till we have the rain-water for the only plough, and the noise of the rain on the thick leaves for the pattering of their spindles till Bagheera and I lair in the house of the Brahmin, and the buck drink at the tank behind the temple! Let in the Jungle, Hathi!"
The top of the long ascent being reached, the last gate, the Hathi Pol, is passed, and the wayfarer finds himself in the midst of the great dead city, which lies in ruins for three miles along the bastioned brow of the mountain. Just beyond the first group of stately ruins, we came on the building which was probably the palace built by Lakha Rana in 1373.
That was the Sack of the Fields of Bhurtpore, which I and my three sons did; and now I ask, Man-cub, how the news of it came to thee?" said Hathi. "A man told me, and now I see even Buldeo can speak truth. It was well done, Hathi with the white mark; but the second time it shall be done better, for the reason that there is a man to direct. Thou knowest the village of the Man-Pack that cast me out?
I have killed Shere Khan, and his hide rots on the Council Rock; but but I do not know whither Shere Khan is gone, and my stomach is still empty. Now I will take that which I can see and touch. Let in the Jungle upon that village, Hathi!" Bagheera shivered, and cowered down.
"It concerns an elephant, old and wise, who fell into a trap, and the sharpened stake in the pit scarred him from a little above his heel to the crest of his shoulder, leaving a white mark." Mowgli threw out his hand, and as Hathi wheeled the moonlight showed a long white scar on his slaty side, as though he had been struck with a red-hot whip.
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