Raja ki Savari (An Indian King's ride)

Historical outline

It is historically proven that ancient people living in the Indus valley knew how to hunt and, possibly, tame elephants. Elephants certainly figure in the collection of Indian religious hymns known as the Rigveda, composed in the late 2nd through to early 1st millennium BC, but written down centuries later. However, there is no mention of elephants in combat. At this time, horse-drawn war chariots commanded the battlefield.

Ctesias, a Greek historian of the 5th-4th centuries BC, gives the first concrete evidence of elephants being used in combat. He recorded that the Derbices, a tribe living east of the Caspian Sea, hid elephants in an ambush, then led them in a surprise attack on the cavalry of the Persian king Cyrus, making the cavalry flee. The Derbices received their animals from the Indians, who fought together with them and probably drove the elephants. Elephants in warfare are also mentioned in the ancient Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, created about the mid-1st millennium BC although not written down until the first centuries AD.

Thus, about the mid-1st millennium BC elephants began their 'war carrier' role in India and the surrounding regions, gradually ousting war chariots from the battlefield. When Alexander of Macedonia invaded India in 327 BC, local armies were equipped with chariots and elephants in comparable numbers. In the dramatic battle at the Hydaspes River in 326 BC, Porus (r. 340-317 BC), king of a small state on the territory of modern Punjab, had war chariots but they did not play a noticeable role, probably because a heavy rain had turned the ground into a mash and chariots could hardly move. Also significant is the fact that Porus was no longer driving a chariot (as was customary for ancient heroes), but a war elephant, a choice showing a distinct switch in priorities. Although chariots lingered in India until the early Middle Ages, they are mentioned only occasionally, while war elephants are universally discussed.

Despite their presence, elephants cannot be given a decisive role at the Hydaspes. At first they inflicted substantial casualties to the enemy infantry, but many elephants were wounded and their drivers killed in a series of clashes with the Macedonians. The elephants grew disobedient and increasingly harmed their own side as well as the enemy. (Because a lot of the elephants were wounded or lost their drivers, the animals became confused and refused to obey humans any longer.) Nevertheless, Indian kings had faith in their invincibility and sought to enlarge elephant corps. Their faith was not necessarily misplaced. Diodorus even believed that Alexander curtailed his march inside India for fear of war with the Gangaridae, an Indian tribal force that could field 4,000 elephants. Chandragupta, another Indian king ruling at the end of the 4th century BC, had an even larger force, with some estimates as high as 9,000 elephants. These figures are sometimes considered to be exaggerations. Two points are worth considering, however. First, Indian armies used numerous pack elephants, which are possibly included in the general figures. Second, historical accounts record that Chandragupta readily granted Seleucus I a force of 500 elephants, testament to the large number he must have had available.

Kautilya unequivocally declares that 'the victory of kings in battles depends mainly upon elephants; for elephants, being of large bodily frame, are able not only to destroy the arrayed army of the enemy, his fortifications and encampments, but also to undertake works that are dangerous to life' (Arthashastra, II.2.20). Later Indian authors were no less prone to enthusiasm: 'where there are elephants, there is victory'; 'the kingdoms of kings depend on elephants'; 'one elephant, duly equipped and trained in the methods of war, is capable of slaying six thousand well-caparisoned horses'; or 'an army without elephants is as despicable as a forest without a lion, a kingdom without a king or as valour unaided by weapons'.

Elephants were extensively used on medieval India's battlefields. They served Delhi sultans, Mughal emperors, Rajput princes and Vijayanagar Empire rulers. Only the Marathas did not make them a prominent feature of their army.

Medieval Indian armies numbered from several hundred to several thousand war elephants (not counting numerous pack elephants), depending on a ruler's might. Smaller rulers of the 6th century had 500-600 war elephants, but the Delhi sultan Muhammad bin Tughluq (r. 1325-51) is said to have possessed 3,000; Sher Shah Sur, who governed Delhi in 1540-45, owned 5,000 elephants. Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) kept 6,000, though probably not all of these were war elephants. In 1730 Nizam-ul-Mulk (r. 1724-48) of Hyderabad had over 1,000 war elephants, including 225 armoured. The Mughal army possessed 2,000 elephants in 1739; although the number of armoured elephants is unknown.

Indian faith in these living tanks was only shaken with the development of firearms. Rifle fire did not usually stop an elephant attack. Cases are known when dozens, even hundreds of bullets hit a poor elephant before killing it. Only an extremely well-aimed bullet could kill an elephant, if it hit a vital point. Artillery is another matter. Big and slow, elephants made excellent cannon targets. European armies operating within South Asia quickly realized that a single shot from a 4-pdr at an elephant carrying the commander could win the day - with the commander dead, an army usually took to flight. Indians unwillingly parted with their faith in war elephants, with the last recorded use of such creatures taking place in the late 18th century, although they continued to be used as draught animals.


**** Last week was hectic with loadsa ofc work.
This weekend was hectic with household work wrapping up.
two movies in a row and shopping fanned the hectic week/weekend finally :)
A quick entry taken before retiring for the day.