According to Sri Lankan tradition, Kandula served as King Dutugamunu’s mount.
Kandula is a famous war elephant described in the Mahavamsa, a major Sinhala chronicle. Tradition says the elephant was found by a fisherman and later became the companion and battle mount of Dutugamunu, who ruled Sri Lanka in the first century BC.
The best-known story places Kandula in Dutugamunu’s campaign against King Elara. In the climactic duel near Anuradhapura, Dutugamunu is said to have ridden Kandula, while Elara mounted another elephant named Maha Pambata. The account forms part of Sri Lanka’s traditional national history, rather than a modern independently verified battlefield record.
Kandula is not the same elephant as Hanno, Abul-Abbas or Surus, which belonged to different historical settings. Kandula’s name has also been reused: a Sri Lankan military regiment adopted it as a mascot name, and an Asian elephant born at Washington’s National Zoo was named after the legendary animal.