Talk:Mahout

Hindi & Sanskrit
If interested in cutting and pasting, here are the words in Devanagari: mahaut = महौत, mahāvat = महावत, and mahāmātra = महामात्र. Khirad (talk) 22:00, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation?
Maybe Mahout should have a disambiguation page that also points to Apache Mahout? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dfrankow (talk • contribs) 15:35, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Topic
The title of this article is "Mahout", but a lot of it discusses elephants and their treatment in Thailand. Perhaps some of this material belongs in another article - I'll look into what other appropriate articles may already exist if I have the time.

Verification
There are a few claims in here that could do with some verification, particularly the remark that Pajaad is "still accepted as the only viable training method for elephant handlers" - I've marked that as needing citation. This NatGeo article comments "...phajaan, still practiced in places today" - which is not the same thing as being accepted as the "only viable" training method. I may delete that claim shortly but will try to replace it with something more detailed. Other things that I think need more support and/or re-wording: The reference to stabbing the elephant in the head with the ankus in the introduction seems intended to disturb and is a generalization... that it's used in that manner by all Mahout's at all times is almost certainly not true and certainly can be disputed. This need rewriting to clarify and it needs a citation. The first sentence of the "Phajann" section "In order to tame baby elephants..." is also quite general. A citation is provided here, but it should be qualified to indicate that this method is used in some cases (I'll fix) or some additional reference is needed to show it is always used. The rest of the Phajaan section has no citations, it needs some.

Robertwinz (talk) 18:26, 28 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Agree, this article contain parts which are highly biased, and some records are even POV, the article needs cleaning to reach WP:NPOV status. As for now, it actually should be marked. Dan Koehl (talk) 15:33, 4 March 2018 (UTC)

Devices used to control elephants in India
Cool. So what do they do with the hooks? Are the hooks sharp? Do they hurt the elephant? And by hurt I don't mean give me preamble of lol they don't feel pain like fish because they have no souls to defend the establishment. I mean is it like a riding crop for a horse? What do they do with them? Explain! BaSH PR0MPT (talk) 02:12, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

Equipment size
There are a lot of sites, that duplicate the following information: "The thotti (hook), which is 3.5 feet in length and 3 inches thick; the valiya kol (long pole), which is 10.5 feet in length and 5.5 inches in thickness; and the cheru kol (short pole).". The thickness values are ridiculous: 5.5 inches is 14 cm, how do you manage a pole like that with one hand ? I found pictures of the equipment in http://www.vetnotes.vetcos.com/captive_asian_elephant.pdf, page 43. Scaling up, maintaining the proportions, the Long pole (3) looks less than one inch thick, and the same the other tools. --Robertiki (talk) 19:28, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Lies in the article
There are lies in this article, (by stabbing the elephant in the head, and in areas like the mouth and inner ear, where the animal is most sensitive) obviously by Animal rights people who never trained an elephant, and in reality dont know how it is done, and I will mark it POV. Working with elephants since 43 years, I also carry a hook, but it doesnt mean I act like the description. Police carry guns, but it doesnt mean they are shooting people every day. The hook is a safety tool, which in 95% of cases is used as a guide, when used at all. I will now mark the article POV. Dan Koehl (talk) 01:50, 12 October 2019 (UTC)

Mahout
Cool 😎 so why do they call it a mahout is it the guard of mahatma ghandi ?I hope it's what I 🤔 think it is 196.6.112.151 (talk) 04:11, 18 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Can you tell us where tis occurred? I can find no place where mahouts have anything to do with Mahatma Gandhi. Richard-of-Earth (talk) 07:41, 19 November 2022 (UTC)

Karen people
Were Karen people historically known as mahouts? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 21:31, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
 * https://www.gviusa.com/blog/karen-culture-pt-1history-weddings-clothing/
 * https://www.thecareprojectfoundation.org/the-cultural-relationship-between-karen-mahouts-and-elephants/
 * Google search: [//www.google.com/search?q= Were Karen people historically known as mahouts]
 * -Richard-of-Earth (talk) 15:34, 8 January 2023 (UTC)