War elephant

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This article is about elephants trained for combat. For the album by Deer Tick, see War Elephant (album).
War elephant
BranchCavalry
EngagementsBattle of the Hydaspes
Battle of Zama
Second Battle of Panipat
Battle of Ambur
Henri Motte
Indian elephant sword on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, two feet (61 cm) long
Rajput painting depicting a war elephant in an army

A war elephant was an elephant that was trained and guided by humans for combat. The war elephant's main use was to charge the enemy, break their ranks, and instill terror and fear. Elephantry is a term for specific military units using elephant-mounted troops.[1]

Description

War elephants played a critical role in several key

Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam, well into the 19th century.[citation needed
]

Taming

See also: Captive elephants
A 17th-century depiction of the war of Lanka in the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, showing war elephants

An elephant trainer, rider, or keeper is called a

ankus, or 'elephant goad'. According to Chanakya as recorded in the Arthashastra, first the mahout would have to get the elephant used to being led.[4] The elephant would have learned how to raise its legs to help a rider climb on. Then the elephants were taught to run and maneuver around obstacles, and move in formation.[4]
These elephants would be fit to learn how to systematically trample and charge enemies.

The first elephant species to be tamed was the

Indus Valley civilization, around roughly 2000 BC.[5] Archaeological evidence for the presence of wild elephants in the Yellow River valley in Shang China (c. 1600–1100 BC) may suggest that they also used elephants in warfare.[6] The wild elephant populations of Mesopotamia and China declined quickly because of deforestation
and human population growth: by 850 BC the Mesopotamian elephants were extinct, and by 500 BC the Chinese elephants were seriously reduced in numbers and limited to areas well south of the Yellow River.

Capturing elephants from the wild remained a difficult task, but a necessary one given the difficulties of breeding in captivity and the long time required for an elephant to reach sufficient maturity to engage in battle. Sixty-year-old war elephants were always prized as being at the most suitable age for battle service and gifts of elephants of this age were seen as particularly generous.[7] Today an elephant is considered in its prime and at the height of its power between the ages of 25 and 40, yet elephants as old as 80 are used in tiger hunts because they are more disciplined and experienced.[8]

It is commonly thought that the reason all war elephants were male was because of males' greater aggression, but it was instead because a female elephant in battle will run from a male; therefore only males could be used in war, whereas female elephants were more commonly used for logistics.[9]

Antiquity

Indian subcontinent

Conjectural reconstruction of the main gate of Kusinagara used by war elephants c. 500 BC adapted from a relief at Sanchi.

There is uncertainty as to when elephant warfare first started, but it is widely accepted that it began in

ancient India. The early Vedic period did not extensively specify the use of elephants in war. However, in the Ramayana, Indra is depicted as riding either Airavata, a mythological elephant, or on the Uchchaihshravas, as his mounts. Elephants were widely utilized in warfare by the later Vedic period by the 6th century BC.[8] The increased conscription of elephants in the military history of India coincides with the expansion of the Vedic Kingdoms into the Indo-Gangetic Plain suggesting its introduction during the intervening period.[10] The practice of riding on elephants in peace and war, royalty or commoner, was first recorded in the 6th or 5th century BC.[8]
This practice is believed to be much older than proper recorded history.

Carnatic Wars

The ancient Indian epics

Gautama Buddha being visited by a 'hatthāroho gāmaṇi'. He is the head of a village community bound together by their profession as mercenary soldiers forming an elephant corp.[7]

Ancient Indian kings certainly valued the elephant in war, some stating that an army without elephants is as despicable as a forest without a lion, a kingdom without a king, or as valor unaided by weapons.[13] The use of elephants further increased with the rise of the Mahajanapadas. King Bimbisara (c. 543 BC), who began the expansion of the Magadha kingdom, relied heavily on his war elephants. The Mahajanapadas would be conquered by the Nanda Empire under the reign of Mahapadma Nanda. Pliny the Elder and Plutarch also estimated the Nanda Army strength in the east as 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 war elephants. Alexander the Great would come in contact with the Nanda Empire on the banks of the Beas River and was forced to return due to his army's unwillingness to advance. Even if the numbers and prowess of these elephants were exaggerated by historic accounts, elephants were established firmly as war machines in this period.

Chandragupta Maurya (321–297 BC), formed the Maurya Empire, the largest empire to exist in South Asia. At the height of his power, Chandragupta is said to have wielded a military of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots and 9,000 war elephants besides followers and attendants.

In the Mauryan Empire, the 30-member war office was made up of six boards. The sixth board looked after the elephants, and were headed by Gajadhyaksha. The gajadhyaksha was the superintendent of elephants and his qualifications. The use of elephants in the Maurya Empire as recorded by Chanakya in the Arthashastra. According to Chanakya; catching, training, and controlling war elephants was one of the most important skills taught by the military academies.[4] He advised Chandragupta to set up forested sanctuaries for the wellness of the elephants. Chanakya explicitly conveyed the importance of these sanctuaries. The Maurya Empire would reach its zenith under the reign of Ashoka, who used elephants extensively during his conquest. During the Kalinga War, Kalinga had a standing army of 60,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry and 700 war elephants. Kalinga was notable for the quality of their war elephants which were prized by its neighbors for being stronger.[14] Later the King Kharavela was to restore an independent Kalinga into a powerful kingdom using war elephants as stated in the Hathigumpha inscription or "Elephant Cave" Inscriptions.

Following Indian accounts foreign rulers would also adopt the use of elephants.

Kusinagara with war elephants, as depicted at Sanchi.[15]

The

Rajendra Chola
had an armored elephant force, which played a major role in his campaigns.

Sri Lanka made extensive use of elephants and also exported elephants with Pliny the Elder stating that the Sri Lankan elephants, for example, were larger, fiercer and better for war than local elephants. This superiority, as well as the proximity of the supply to seaports, made Sri Lanka's elephants a lucrative trading commodity.[16] Sri Lankan history records indicate elephants were used as mounts for kings leading their men in the battlefield,[17] with individual mounts being recorded in history. The elephant Kandula was King Dutugamunu's mount and Maha Pambata, 'Big Rock', the mount of King Ellalan during their historic encounter on the battlefield in 200 BC, for example.[18]

Eastern Asia

Main article: Ballista elephant

Elephants were used for warfare in China by a small handful of southern dynasties. The state of

Siam.[20] During the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, the rebels used elephants against the Qing dynasty, but the Qing Bannermen shot them with so many arrows that they "resembled porcupines" and repelled the elephant charge.[21]

... the soldiers of the first column were attacked by the elephants. The flags of Major-general of the Guards, Walda of the Yellow Banner, and of Lieutenant Ulehi of the Manchu-Mongol cavalry were captured. As the elephants closed in on the encircled soldiers of the second column, the arrows shot by all of my men [into the elephants’ hides] looked like the quills of a porcupine. The elephants fled towards the hills [but] I was greatly alarmed and had a strange feeling. The rebels withdrew from the plain and split into groups [to hide] in the thick forest of the mountain.[22]

— Dzengseo

Chinese armies faced off against war elephants in Southeast Asia, such as during the

Lý–Song War. The Song forces used scythed polearms to cut the elephants' trunks, causing them to trample their own troops.[24] During the Mong Mao campaign, the elephants were routed by an assortment of gunpowder projectiles.[25] In the war against the Hồ dynasty, Ming troops covered their horses with lion masks to scare the elephants and shot them with firearms.[26] The elephants all trembled with fear and were wounded by the guns and arrows, causing the Viet army to panic.[27]

Achaemenid Persia, Macedonia and Hellenistic Greek states

A depiction of war elephants attacking at the Battle of the Hydaspes River, by Andre Castaigne

From India, military thinking on the use of war elephants spread westwards to the

Macedonia in Hellenistic Greece. The first confrontation between Europeans and the Persian war elephants occurred at Alexander's Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), where the Persians deployed fifteen elephants.[28] These elephants were placed at the centre of the Persian line and made such an impression on Alexander's army that he felt the need to sacrifice to Phobos, the God of Fear, the night before the battle – but according to some sources the elephants ultimately failed to deploy in the final battle owing to their long march the day before.[29]
Alexander won resoundingly at Gaugamela, but was deeply impressed by the enemy elephants and took these first fifteen into his own army, adding to their number during his capture of the rest of Persia.

This elephant and driver with a hunting howdah, including pistol, bows and a rifle are most likely from the Mughal Emperor's stable.

By the time Alexander reached the borders of India five years later, he had a substantial number of elephants under his own command. When it came to defeating

Porus, who ruled in what is now Punjab, Pakistan, Alexander found himself facing a considerable force of between 85 and 100 war elephants[30][31] at the Battle of the Hydaspes. Preferring stealth and mobility to sheer force, Alexander manoeuvered and engaged with just his infantry and cavalry, ultimately defeating Porus' forces, including his elephant corps, albeit at some cost. Porus for his part placed his elephants individually, at long intervals from each other, a short distance in front of his main infantry line, in order to scare off Macedonian cavalry attacks and aid his own infantry in their struggle against the phalanx. The elephants caused many losses with their tusks fitted with iron spikes or by lifting the enemies with their trunks and trampling them.[32]

Arrian described the subsequent fight: "[W]herever the beasts could wheel around, they rushed forth against the ranks of infantry and demolished the phalanx of the Macedonians, dense as it was."[33]

The Macedonians adopted the standard ancient tactic for fighting elephants, loosening their ranks to allow the elephants to pass through and assailing them with javelins as they tried to wheel around; they managed to pierce the unarmoured elephants' legs. The panicked and wounded elephants turned on the Indians themselves; the mahouts were armed with poisoned rods to kill the beasts but were slain by javelins and archers.[32][34]

Looking further east again, however, Alexander could see that the emperors and kings of the Nanda Empire and Gangaridai could deploy between 3,000 and 6,000 war elephants. Such a force was many times larger than the number of elephants employed by the Persians and Greeks, which probably discouraged Alexander's army and effectively halted their advance into India.[35] On his return, Alexander established a force of elephants to guard his palace at Babylon, and created the post of elephantarch to lead his elephant units.[29]

War elephants during the Battle of Gaugamela

The successful military use of elephants spread further. The successors to Alexander's empire, the Diadochi, used hundreds of Indian elephants in their wars, with the Seleucid Empire being particularly notable for their use of the animals, still being largely brought from India. Indeed, the Seleucid–Mauryan war of 305–303 BC ended with the Seleucids ceding vast eastern territories in exchange for 500 war elephants[36] – a small part of the Mauryan forces, which included up to 9000 elephants by some accounts.[37] The Seleucids put their new elephants to good use at the Battle of Ipsus four years later, where they blocked the return of the victorious Antigonid cavalry, allowing the latter's phalanx to be isolated and defeated.

The first use of war elephants in Europe was made in 318 BC by

Peloponnesus during the wars of the Diadochi. He used 60 elephants brought from Asia with their mahouts. A veteran of Alexander's army, named Damis, helped the besieged Megalopolitians to defend themselves against the elephants and eventually Polyperchon was defeated. Those elephants were subsequently taken by Cassander and transported, partly by sea, to other battlefields in Greece. It is assumed that Cassander constructed the first elephant transport sea vessels. Some of the elephants died of starvation in 316 BC in the besieged city of Pydna in Macedonia. Others of Polyperchon's elephants were used in various parts of Greece by Cassander.[38]

Although the use of war elephants in the western Mediterranean is most famously associated with the wars between

battle of Asculum. This time the Romans came prepared with flammable weapons and anti-elephant devices: these were ox-drawn wagons, equipped with long spikes to wound the elephants, pots of fire to scare them, and accompanying screening troops who would hurl javelins at the elephants to drive them away. A final charge of Epirot elephants won the day again, but this time Pyrrhus had suffered very heavy casualties – a Pyrrhic victory
.

The

Hasmonaean attacked the largest of the elephants, piercing its underside and bringing the elephant down upon himself.[40]

North Africa

Mounted Nubian elephant

The North African elephant was a significant animal in Nubian culture. They were depicted on the walls of temples and on Meroitic lamps. Kushite kings also utilize war elephants, which are believed to have been kept and trained in the "Great Enclosure" at Musawwarat al-Sufa. The Kingdom of Kush provided these war elephants to the Egyptians, Ptolemies and Syrians.[41]

The

Punics began acquiring African elephants for the same purpose, as did Numidia and the Kingdom of Kush. The animal used was the North African elephant (Loxodonta africana pharaohensis) which would become extinct from overexploitation.[citation needed] These animals were smaller and harder to tame, and could not swim deep rivers compared with the Asian elephants[32] used by the Seleucid Empire on the east of the Mediterranean region, particularly Syrian elephants,[42] which stood 2.5–3.5 meters (8.2–11.5 ft) at the shoulder. It is likely that at least some Syrian elephants were traded abroad. The favorite, and perhaps last surviving, elephant of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps was an impressive animal named Surus ("the Syrian"), which may have been of Syrian stock,[43] though the evidence remains ambiguous.[44]

Since the late 1940s, a strand of scholarship has argued that the African forest elephants used by Numidia, the Ptolemies and the

Ptolemy IV carried turrets; these elephants were significantly smaller than the Asian elephants fielded by the Seleucids and so presumably African forest elephants.[48] There is also evidence that Carthaginian war elephants were furnished with turrets and howdahs in certain military contexts.[49]

Farther south, tribes would have had access to the

African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana oxyotis). Although much larger than either the African forest elephant or the Asian elephant, these proved difficult to tame for war purposes and were not used extensively.[50] Asian elephants were traded westwards to the Mediterranean markets with Sri Lankan elephants being particularly preferred for war.[51]

Battle of Zama by Henri-Paul Motte, 1890

Perhaps inspired by the victories of

battle of Tunis however the charge of the Carthaginian elephants helped to disorder the legions, allowing the Carthaginian phalanx to stand fast and defeat the Romans. During the Second Punic War, Hannibal famously led an army of war elephants across the Alps, although many of them perished in the harsh conditions. The surviving elephants were successfully used in the battle of Trebia, where they panicked the Roman cavalry and Gallic allies. The Romans eventually developed effective anti-elephant tactics, leading to Hannibal's defeat at his final battle of Zama in 202 BC; his elephant charge, unlike the one at the battle of Tunis, was ineffective because the disciplined Roman maniples
simply made way for them to pass.

Rome

Main article: Roman war elephants
Statuette of an Asian war elephant, Pompeii

Rome brought back many elephants at the end of the

Antiochus III's fifty-four elephants took on the Roman force of sixteen. In later years the Romans deployed twenty-two elephants at Pydna in 168 BC.[54]
The role of the elephant force at Cynoscephalae was particularly decisive, as their quick charge shattered the unformed Macedonian left wing, allowing the Romans to encircle and destroy the victorious Macedonian right. A similar event also occurred at Pydna. The Romans' successful use of war elephants against the Macedonians might be considered ironic, given that it was Pyrrhus who first taught them the military potential of elephants.

Elephants also featured throughout the Roman campaign against the

Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus marched against Viriathus with another ten elephants sent by king Micipsa. However, the Lusitanian style of ambushes in narrow terrains ensured his elephants did not play an important factor in the conflict, and Servilianus was eventually defeated by Viriathus in the city of Erisana.[56]

Bacchus returning from India, with soldiers atop war elephants, 2nd century AD, similar to a later sarcophagus with the same theme

Famously, the Romans used a war elephant in their

first invasion of Britain, one ancient writer recording that "Caesar had one large elephant, which was equipped with armor and carried archers and slingers in its tower. When this unknown creature entered the river, the Britons and their horses fled and the Roman army crossed over"[57] – although he may have confused this incident with the use of a similar war elephant in Claudius' final conquest of Britain. At least one elephantine skeleton with flint weapons that has been found in England was initially misidentified as these elephants, but later dating proved it to be a mammoth skeleton from the Stone Age.[58]

In the African campaign of the

Metellus Scipio used elephants against Caesar's army at the battle of Thapsus. Scipio trained his elephants before the battle by aligning the elephants in front of slingers that would throw rocks at them, and another line of slingers at the elephants' rear to perform the same, in order to propel the elephants only in one direction, preventing them turning their backs because of frontal attack and charging against his own lines, but the author of De Bello Africano admits of the enormous effort and time required to accomplish this.[59]

By the time of Claudius however, such animals were being used by the Romans in single numbers only – the last significant use of war elephants in the Mediterranean was against the Romans at the battle of Thapsus, 46 BC, where Julius Caesar armed his fifth legion (Alaudae) with axes and commanded his legionaries to strike at the elephant's legs. The legion withstood the charge, and the elephant became its symbol. Thapsus was the last significant use of elephants in the West.[60] The remainder of the elephants seemed to have been thrown into panic by Caesar's archers and slingers.

Parthia and Sassanian Persia

Main article: Persian war elephants
Sassanid Persians War elephants in the Battle of Avarayr
(451 CE)

The

invading Arab Muslims
, in which battle the war elephants proved to be a "double-edged sword".

The Sassanid elephant corps held primacy amongst the Sassanid cavalry forces and was recruited from

fall of the Sassanid Empire
the use of war elephants died out in the region.

Aksumite Empire

Main article: Year of the Elephant

The Kingdom of Aksum in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea made use of war elephants in 525 AD during the invasion of the Himyarite Kingdom in the Arabian peninsula. The war elephants used by the Aksumite army consisted of African savannah elephants,[64][full citation needed] a significantly larger and more temperamental species of elephant. War elephants were again put to use by an Aksumite army in the year 570 in a military expedition against the Quraysh of Mecca.[65]

Middle Ages

A Romanesque painting of a war elephant. Spain, 11th century

The

Hou Hanshu additionally describes the Kushan as acquiring riches including elephants as part of their conquests. The emperor Kanishka assembled a great army from his subject nations, including elephants from India. He planned on attacking the Tarim Kingdoms, and sent a vanguard of Indian troops led by white elephants. However, when crossing the Pamir Mountains the elephants and horses in the vanguard were unwilling to advance. Kanishka is then said to have had a religious revelation and rejected violence.[66]

The Gupta Empire demonstrated extensive use of elephants in war and greatly expanded under the reign of Samudragupta. Local squads which each consisted of one elephant, one chariot, three armed cavalrymen, and five foot soldiers protected Gupta villages from raids and revolts. In times of war, the squads joined together to form a powerful imperial army. The Gupta Empire employed 'Mahapilupati', a position as an officer in charge of elephants. Emperors such as Kumaragupta struck coins depicted as elephant riders and lion slayers.[67]

Harsha established hegemony over most of North India. The Harshacharita composed by Bāṇabhaṭṭa describes the army under the rule of Harsha. Much like the Gupta Empire, his military consisted of infantry, cavalry, and elephants. Harsha received war elephants as tribute and presents from vassals. Some elephants were also obtained by forest rangers from the jungles. Elephants were additionally taken from defeated armies. Bana additionally details the diet of the elephants, recording that they each consumed 600 pounds of fodder consisting of trees with mangos and sugarcanes.[68]

The Chola dynasty and the Western Chalukya Empire maintained a large number of war elephants in the 11th and 12th century.[69] The war elephants of the Chola dynasty carried on their backs fighting towers which were filled with soldiers who would shoot arrows at long range.[70] The army of the Pala Empire was noted for its huge elephant corps, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 50,000.[71]

The Ghaznavids were the first amongst the Islamic dynasties to incorporate war elephants into their tactical theories. They also used a large number of elephants in their battles. The Ghaznavids acquired their elephants as tribute from the Hindu princes and as war plunder. The sources usually list the number of beasts captured, and these frequently ran into hundreds, such as 350 from Qanauj and 185 from Mahaban in 409/1018-19, and 580 from the Raja Ganda in 410/1019-20. Utbi records that the Thanesar expedition of 405/1014-15 was provoked by Mahmad's desire to get some of the special breed of Sri lankan breed of elephants excellent in war [72]

In 1526,

Battle of Khanua.[citation needed] The great Moghul Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605 AD) had 32,000 elephants in his stables. Jahangir, (reigned 1605–1627 A.D.) was a great connoisseur of elephants. He increased the number of elephants in service. Jahangir was stated to have 113,000 elephants in captivity: 12,000 in active army service, 1,000 to supply fodder to these animals, and another 100,000 elephants to carry courtiers, officials, attendants and baggage.[73]

Portuguese fort at Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1558 with an army containing 2,200 elephants, used for logistics and siege work.[74] The Sri Lankans had continued their proud traditions in capturing and training elephants from ancient times. The officer in charge of the royal stables, including the capture of elephants, was called the Gajanayake Nilame,[74] while the post of Kuruve Lekham controlled the Kuruwe or elephant men.[74]
The training of war elephants was the duty of the Kuruwe clan who came under their own Muhandiram, a Sri Lankan administrative post.

In

Ka‘bah in Mecca, intending to demolish it. He had a large army, which included one or more elephants (as many as eight, in some accounts). However, the (single or lead) elephant, whose name was 'Mahmud', is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter – which was taken by both the Meccans and their Yemenite foes as a serious omen. According to Islamic tradition, it was in this year that Muhammad was born.[75]

In the

Crusades gave Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II the opportunity to capture an elephant in the Holy Land, the same animal later being used in the capture of Cremona
in 1214, but the use of these individual animals was more symbolic than practical, especially when contrasting food and water consumption of elephants in foreign lands and the harsh conditions of the crusades.

Cham
in the 12th century.

The

which?] say that the Timurids ultimately won by employing an ingenious strategy: Timur tied flaming straw to the back of his camels before the charge. The smoke made the camels run forward, scaring the elephants, who crushed their own troops in their efforts to retreat. Another account of the campaign by Ahmed ibn Arabshah reports that Timur used oversized caltrops to halt the elephants' charge.[citation needed] Later, the Timurid leader used the captured animals against the Ottoman Empire
.

Suphanburi
in January 1593.

In

Kingdom of Ayutthaya. The war may have been concluded when the Burmese crown prince Mingyi Swa was killed by Siamese King Naresuan in personal combat on elephant in 1593.[79] However, this duel may be apocryphal.[80]

In Thailand, the king or general rode on the elephant's neck and carried

ngaw, a long pole with a sabre at the end, plus a metal hook for controlling the elephant. Sitting behind him on a howdah, was a signaller, who signalled by waving of a pair of peacock feathers. Above the signaller was the chatras, consisting of progressively stacked circular canopies, the number signifying the rank of the rider. Finally, behind the signaller on the elephant's back, was the steerer, who steered via a long pole. The steerer may have also carried a short musket and a sword.[81]
: 40–41 

In Malaysia, 20 elephants battled the Portuguese during the Capture of Malacca (1511).

Nguyen dynasty
army.

The Chinese continued to reject the use of war elephants throughout the period, with the notable exception of the

Song Dynasty.[84] As one academic has put it, "thereafter this exotic introduction into Chinese culture passed out of history, and the tactical habits of the North prevailed".[84] However, as late as the Ming dynasty in as far north as Beijing, there were still records of elephants being used in Chinese warfare, namely in 1449 where a Vietnamese contingent of war elephants helped the Ming Dynasty defend the city from the Mongols.[85]

Modern era

The elephant battery in Peshawar
munitions yard in Sheffield
.
An elephant pulling a Supermarine Walrus aircraft, India, June 1944

With the advent of gunpowder warfare in the late 15th century, the balance of advantage for war elephants on the battlefield began to change. While muskets had limited impact on elephants, which could withstand numerous volleys,[86] cannon fire was a different matter entirely – an animal could easily be knocked down by a single shot. With elephants still being used to carry commanders on the battlefield, they became even more tempting targets for enemy artillery.

Nonetheless, in south-east Asia the use of elephants on the battlefield continued up until the end of the 19th century.

artillery pieces over ground unsuitable for oxen.[88][89][90][91]

Into the 20th century, military elephants were used for non-combat purposes in the

Elephant Bill: "They built hundreds of bridges for us, they helped to build and launch more ships for us than Helen ever did for Greece. Without them our retreat from Burma would have been even more arduous and our advance to its liberation slower and more difficult."[93] Military elephants were used as late as the Vietnam War.[94]

Elephants were as of 2017 being used by the Kachin Independence Army for an auxiliary role.[95] Elephants are now more valuable to many armies in

U.S. Special Forces field manual issued as recently as 2004, but their use by U.S. personnel is discouraged because elephants are endangered.[96]

Tactical use

1857 Indian Rebellion
(note the sharpshooter on the elephant)

There were many military purposes for which elephants could be used. In battle, war elephants were usually deployed in the centre of the line, where they could be useful to prevent a charge or to conduct one of their own. Their sheer size and their terrifying appearance made them valued heavy cavalry.[97] Off the battlefield they could carry heavy materiel, and with a top speed of approximately 30 kilometres per hour (19 mph) provided a useful means of transport, before mechanized vehicles rendered them mostly obsolete.[98]

The elephant Citranand attacking another, called Udiya, during the Mughal campaign against the rebel forces of Khan Zaman and Bahadur Khan in 1567

In addition to charging, elephants could provide a safe and stable platform for archers to shoot arrows in the middle of the battlefield, from which more targets could be seen and engaged. The driver, called a

jingals and rockets against elephants, innovations that would ultimately drive these animals out of active service on the battlefield.[99]

Besides the dawn of more efficient means of transportation and weaponry, war elephants also had clear tactical weaknesses that lead to their eventual retirement. After sustaining painful wounds, or when their driver was killed, elephants had the tendency to panic, often causing them to run amok indiscriminately, making casualties on either side. Experienced Roman infantrymen often tried to sever their trunks, causing instant distress, and possibly leading the elephant to flee back into its own lines. Fast skirmishers armed with javelins were also used by the Romans to drive them away, as well as flaming objects or a stout line of long spears, such as Triarii. Another method for disrupting elephant units in classical antiquity was the deployment of war pigs. Ancient writers believed that elephants could be "scared by the smallest squeal of a pig".[100] Some warlords, however, interpreted this expression literally. At the siege of Megara during the Diadochi wars, for example, the Megarians reportedly poured oil on a herd of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants, which subsequently bolted in terror.[101]

The value of war elephants in battle remains a contested issue. In the 19th century, it was fashionable to contrast the western, Roman focus on infantry and discipline with the eastern, exotic use of war elephants that relied merely on fear to defeat their enemy.[102] One writer commented that war elephants "have been found to be skittish and easily alarmed by unfamiliar sounds and for this reason they were found prone to break ranks and flee".[103] Nonetheless, the continued use of war elephants for several thousand years attests to their enduring value to the historical battlefield commander.[citation needed]

Cultural legacy

The use of war elephants over the centuries has left a deep cultural legacy in many countries. Many traditional war games incorporate war elephants. There is piece in chess called Elephant. While Englishmen call that piece

Chinese chess. In Arabic – and derived from it, in Spanish
– the bishop piece is called al-fil, Arabic for "elephant".

In the Japanese game shogi, there used to be a piece known as the "Drunken Elephant"; it was, however, dropped by order of the Emperor Go-Nara and no longer appears in the version played in today's Japan.

Elephant armour, originally designed for use in war, is today usually only seen in museums. One particularly fine set of Indian elephant armour is preserved at the Leeds Royal Armouries Museum, while Indian museums across the sub-continent display other fine pieces. The architecture of India also shows the deep impact of elephant warfare over the years. War elephants adorn many military gateways, such as those at Lohagarh Fort for example, while some spiked, anti-elephant gates still remain, for example at Kumbhalgarh fort. Across India, older gateways are invariably much higher than their European equivalents, in order to allow elephants with howdahs to pass through underneath.

War elephants also remain a popular artistic trope, either in the

mûmakil
.

Elephants in use by Indian cavalry.

In popular culture

heavy artillery for the British Indian Army. Kala-Nag from Toomai of the Elephants performed similar duties during the First Anglo-Afghan War.[104]

Numerous strategy video games feature elephants as special units, usually available only to specific factions or requiring special resources. These include

Celtic Kings: The Punic Wars,[106] the Civilization series, the Total War series, Imperator: Rome, and Crusader Kings III
.

In the 2004 film

Battle of Hydaspes depicts war elephants fighting against the Macedonian phalanx.[citation needed
]

In the 2017 video game Assassin's Creed Origins, they are distributed around the map as boss fights.[107][108]

In

Haradrim army in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.[110]

In Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal, an episode features war elephants fighting against Egyptians.

In Horizon Forbidden West, there are machines called Tremortusks, which are suited for combat and are based on war elephants.

See also

Citations

  1. Century Company. p. 2257. Also: elephantry (Wiktionary
    )
  2. ^ Lal, Dr Avantika. "Elephants In Ancient Indian Warfare". World History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2022-11-15. Retrieved 2022-11-21.
  3. ^ Koehl, Dan. "Mahout". Elephant Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  4. ^
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