The elephant has always been an integral part of Indian culture and heritage.
The great sculptors of Odisha, the then Kalinga, had observed animals in nature and applied their technical knowledge, achieved through the centuries, to the animal motifs depicted on the walls of caves and Temples. The preponderance of elephant motifs in Temples and caves shows a cultural association of people with the animal due to their availability in plenty both in the wild and in captivity. Kalinga at that time was densely forested and produced large dark elephants that were admired as the best of the type in India and which were prized in the neighbouring countries.
The rulers of Kalinga also had large armies, comprising both cavalry and elephants.
This statue in the northern courtyard of the Konark Temple Complex, was sculpted from soft sandstone, or khondolite, during the 13th century C.E. Like other statues of the period, it has weathered over the centuries leaving it heavily pockmarked
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