Elephants

Another step in the Indianisation of the invading armies, elephants were not present in Babur’s army but were used by his successors, their number probably at a peak in the late 16th Century. Jahangir, in the early 17th Century, used at least 300 elephants, but their numbers seem to have declined later, perhaps because of the intelligent elephant’s detestation of loud bahgs. Moghul war-elephants were trained with fireworks to accustom them to the sound of firearms, and some paintings show musketeers actually firing from elephant-howdahs, but artillery was another matter — in the early 18th Century Nizam ul Mulk lined up 225 elephants in front of his guns, as a test — after one volley (presumably of blank) most of them ran for miles, trampling 306 unfortunate infantrymen in the rush!

Elephant crews were sometimes mail-clad, and could be armed with lances, bows, swords and shields, as well as firearms. A war-elephant carried a box or turret-shaped howdah with three men in it; those of Jahangir had yellow banners at each corner, and at the front a ‘sling. . . that carried a bullett as bigg as a great tennis ball’ — presumably a catapult of some sort. The elephant itself could also be armed, wielding, according to some accounts, a sword or ball-and-chain in its trunk. This rather falls into the ‘I don’t know what effect they have on the enemy but, by God, they frighten me!’ category of weapon, enhancing the already considerable danger to its own side presented by a panicking elephant.

It was de rigeur for army commanders in

Indian reinforced mail, 17th Century. (In this case even the helmet is of small plates joined by mail.)

Indian camel gun, probably 18th Century, but earlier ones would be similar (Tower of London).

India to be mounted on elephants; while largely for prestige reasons, this also made the general visible to his troops, made a good vantage-point for signalling, and tended to raise the great man above the vulgar brawl going on below. Unfortunately, the commander was also a very good target for the enemy, and for this reason was sometimes provided with a seat with armoured sides three feet high and a scarlet canopy — a sort of ‘armoured command vehicle’. Battles were often settled by making a dead set at the opposing commander's elephant. One precaution against this was to provide a number of elephant-mounted ‘Monty’s doubles’, but this rather tended to defeat the original purpose of the exercise!

Elephants could also be provided with laminated steel armour of their own as shown, and might be provided with a metal head-plate to protect them from spikes when pushing down fortress doors, which also formed a frequent part of their duties.