Of Some Particular Animals of India

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The Indian subcontinent is famous for its wildlife. Early European writers and travelers left behind accounts of India’s exotic animals. Ancient Greek and Roman writers, for example, had some knowledge of animals that lived in the regions east of the Mediterranean Sea. In the 1490s Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa and sailed to India, opening up an oceanic route between Europe and the East Indies. European traders, soldiers, and missionaries followed this route to India and other parts of Asia in the years and centuries that followed. Some of them encountered and described some of the animals of India. In one case, an Indian rhinoceros was shipped back to Portugal in the early 16th century.

Several European powers, including the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British, competed for control of the East Indian trade. But the British East Indian Company, founded in 1600, eventually emerged as the dominant force in the India. The British Company outcompeted its European rivals in the 18th century, and almost all of the Indian Subcontinent came under British colonial rule in the 19th century. British India won its independence in 1947, and was partitioned into mostly Muslim Pakistan and the majority Hindu Republic of India. East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh, won its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

In this text, John Henry Grose , describes some of the animals of India. Grose was a British man who came to India in 1750 to work as a servant of the East India Company. He wrote an account of his experiences in India. Among other things, Grose described a number of the animals of India, including leopards, lions, tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, monkeys, and camels. Grose’s descriptions, however, do not seem to be based on personal experience. Instead, he draws heavily on anecdotal stories of dubious accuracy, and on the writings of ancient and early modern scholars and travellers.

Among the people cited by Grose, are Appolonius of Tyana, a 1st century AD Greek Neo-Pythagorean philosopher in the Roman Empire, and his student Damis. He also relied on descriptions of animals by 2nd and 3rd century AD Roman writer Aelian , and 1st century AD Roman writer Pliny the Elder. Aelian’s best known work was “De Natura Animalium” . Pliny the Elder wrote the encyclopedia “Naturalis Historia” .

Grose also cited 17th century European travellers Jacobus Bontius and Albert Le Comte D’Orville . Bontius was a Dutch physician who worked for the Dutch East Indian Company in the Dutch East Indies . He was a pioneer of tropical medicine and introduced the word “orang-utan” into Western languages. Bontius died in Batavia . D’Orville was a Belgian Jesuit priest and missionary who worked in China and travelled into eastern and northern India. He died in India.

In this text, Grose describes the elephant. There are 2 widely recognized species of elephant- African and Asian. Asian elephants, which are easier to train, have been widely domesticated and used in war, ceremonies, and for work. There are several species of rhinoceros. The Indian rhinoceros is found in India. India is home to 2 species of camel, the 1-humped Arabian, or dromedary, and the 2-humped Bactrian camel. In ancient times lions lived in India, the Middle East, southern Europe, and across much of Africa. Today, however, the remnants of the Asiatic subspecies of lion are only found in Gir Forest National Park in India’s Gujarat state. Leopards and tigers are still found in India.