The great Pachyderms (obsolete taxonomic category of old) – I’ve written about Ganda the rhino who circumnavigates Africa, from Gujurat to Marseilles in 1515, a gift from Sultan MuzafarII, ruler of Cambay, sent to the Portuguese King, after the Sultan had declined Alfonso Albuquerque’s request to build a fort in Surat. Ganda, and his keeper Ocem, get to Marseilles in 1516 but sink off the coast of Italy (Ganda was chained to the deck. Sad). The Indian rhino these days is endangered; is the mascot of the security wing of the army (5th Assam I think); and deserves a better fate. See below for a link to a short history of World Rhino Day, and to my article on Ganda, and a great littel vid on Albrecht Durer’s print of Ganda (done without seeing him in the flesh). A pity, since who could not love a mug like these? Gotta have a thick hide, eh?
My chapter on Ganda was in this book, cover below, from Jadavpur Uni Press – a link to an earlier version is below since I don’t have a pdf, but you can also read Niranjan Goswami’s introduction on the google links straight after the cover below:
Here is the draft of the essay – a few changes in editing…
a-rhinoceros-in-the-libraryDownload
And then, finaly, there is this really good vid explaining much about Durer’s rendering of Ganda:
Trinketization 