the first vague beginnings of elephant-farming are believed to have developed shortly after this vast migration was mostly complete , and the pressures of hunger might no longer be relieved by further nomadic progress ; a study of the art of the ivory-carvers gives testament to the success of the breeding project that rendered the domesticated beasts more bovine-docile , and considerably larger than their wild counterparts : a succession of tusks held at the capital , each pair the largest harvested within a generation , carved elaborately and presented to the ( then largely ceremonial ) king ... .