elephant and forester
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upon a time, there lived a herd of elephants at the bottom of the majestic Himalayas. Their leader was a rare white elephant who was an extremely kind-hearted soul. He greatly loved his mother who had grown blind and feeble and could not look out for herself. Each day this white elephant would go deep into the forest in search of food. He would look for the best of fruits to send to his mother through other elephants of the herd. But his mother never received any. This was because the other members of the herd would always eat them up themselves. Each night, when he returned home he would be surprised to hear that his mother had been starving all day. He was absolutely disgusted with his herd. Then one day, he decided to leave them all behind and disappeared in the middle of the night along with his dear mother. He took her to Mount Candorana to live in a cave besides a beautiful lake. It so happened that one day, when the white elephant was feeding, he heard loud cries. A forester from Benaras had lost his way in the forest and was absolutely terrified. The white elephant told him not to worry as he knew every inch of this forest and could take him to safety. He then lifted him on to his back and carried him to the edge of the forest from where the forester went on his merry way back to Benaras. On reaching the city, he heard that King’s personal elephant had just died and the King was looking for a new elephant. His heralds were roaming the city, announcing that any man who had seen or heard of an elephant fit for a King should come forward with the information. The forester was very excited and immediately went up to the King and told him about the white elephant that he had seen on MountCandorana. The King was quite pleased with the information and immediately dispatched a number of soldiers and elephant trainers along with the forester. After travelling for many days, the group reached the lake besides which the elephants resided. They slowly crept down to the edge of the lake and hid behind the bushes. The white elephant was collecting lotus shoots for his mother’s meal and could sense the presence of humans. When he looked up, he spotted the forester and realised that it was he who had led the King’s men to him. He was very upset at the ingratitude but decided not to put up a struggle as many of the men would be killed. And he was just too kind to hurt anyone. So he decided to go along with them to Benaras and then seek a solution to this problem. On reaching the beautiful city of Benaras, the trainers laid out a feast for their new State elephant but he refused to touch a morsel. He did not respond to any kind of stimuli, be it the fragrant flowers or the beautiful and comfortable stable. He just sat there looking completely despondent. The king was extremely concerned. He offered the elephant food from the royal table and asked him why he grieved in this manner. The white elephant replied that he would not eat a thing until he met his mother back home on Mount Candorana as she must be hungry because she was blind and had no one to feed her and take care of her. He was afraid that she would die. The compassionate King was touched by the elephant’s story and assured him that his soldiers would bring his old mother to the palace as soon as possible. The king kept his promise and his soldiers took good care of his mother as well for as long as she lived. She blessed the kind King with peace, prosperity and joy till the end of his days. In this way the white elephant could serve the king and also enjoy the royal perks at the king’s palace along with his mother.
Answer:
what kind of animal was the elephant