Ancient veterinary doctor in action carved out at temple wall ( 10AD).

Elephants are synonym with Indian culture. It has been portrayed as symbol of God and its strength was used in battle field in ancient India. Particularly, the great Chola dynasty extensively used this creature to win war among neighboring kingdom. Apart from this, the Cholans are great admirer of arts and literature where many magnificent buildings such as temples, forts and cities are build during their ruling at southern India. Particularly, the temples are dedicated to display their tremendous power, wealth, imperial domain, and religious commitment of the Cholas in the cities such as Thanjavur and Gangaikonda Cholapuram. Hence, Elephants was used as a power house for their ambitious construction projects to move granite stones from the nearby quarry. Generally, elephants depicted at temple wall such as at battle field or the daily activities at their natural habitat. Almost no records on how elephants are treated in Chola period, however an interesting carving was noticed at 1100 years old temple portraying an act of medical treatment to a sick elephant.