Nano-History Research Paper

The Military History of the War Elephant

Submitted By: Dakota Compton

History 134
Professor Patrick McDonald
March 10th, 2015

The Military History of the War Elephant

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The war elephant was a popularized weapon in the imperial India that was trained and
popularized to engage in the battle and fight the enemies of the Indians. The beast was
domesticated and taught the way it was to attack the enemy with the help of a driver who sat on
the beast neck and controlled it. The paper will look at the way the animal was trained and a
history of the elephant in imperial India and will also include an annotated bibliography at the
end of the paper (Nosov, 56).
The elephant was well prepared for the battle with the back of the elephant having an
emplacement that was known as a Bowdah that had an open top and was necessary to create a
modern battlefield platform and the archers who were in it were used to attack the enemies below
then at their will (Chakravarti, 32).The usage of the war elephant was first practiced in the
imperial India for instilling fear to the enemy and combat of the enemy (Rance, 44).
The elephants were got from the forest and tamed, and they were to breed while they
were still in captivity of the human beings. The male elephants were preferred for the battle due
to their aggressiveness while the female elephants did not engage in battle but were used for
logistics only. The ancient Indians also had a feeling that the female elephants if involved in the
war would run away from a male and would divert the attention from the war hence they could
not be preferred (Nosov, 16).
During the 1st century BC in India there was no mention of the elephants being a war
animal, however in the 4th century BC in the great stories of Ramayan and Mahabhrata there
was the mention of the elephants being tamed and trained to engage in the battle. The Indians by
then believed in the elephant being their war weapon and believed that any war that had no

elephant was like a big forest without the king of the jungle who is the elephant (Chakravarti,
32).
The Persian elephants and the elephants the Persian took to war were all of Indian origin
since they had Indian riders and the elephants were armed with Indian weapons. The elephant as
indicated earlier had a large tower at their back where the men would fight from. The only
person who did not sit on the tower was the driver who had his place at the neck of the male war
elephant. The elephant was also fitted with a chain mails or plates of armor while the army
would be armed with bows arrows and javelin to attack and fight the enemy (Charles, 103).
The war elephants were very useful in the war and the Indians referred to them as the
double weapons since they would terrify their enemies due to the hugeness and tremble on the
enemy troops killing them. The elephants however had some shortcomings in the war, at one
instance king Shah attempted to use the elephants to fight the Arab invaders, but the elephants
panicked when they got sand in their eyes making them turn around and ran wild and killed their
troops (Charles, 23).
The war elephants were trained by riders who were referred to as mahouts who were of
Indian origin and the archers too. The training and the maintenance of the elephants was a
difficult task as the elephants were very hard to maintain as they fed and ate a lot in the battle.
The other challenge was to clear the way for the elephants as they went to battle as they needed
to follow clear paths. The white elephants were kept by Shah in the menagerie and the most
famous at the ancient Indian times was Khosrau 11 who kept a thousand white elephants (Rance,
34).

Annotated Bibliographies

Charles, Michael B. "The Rise of the Sassanian Elephant Corps." Iranica Antiqua (leiden). 42
(2007). Print.
The author has brought out the Sasanian army and the composition of the army and the great
divisions of the Army. The author has talked of the units, the ranks, the Cavalry, the war
elephants, the infantry and the siege weapons that were used by the Indians in war.

Chakravarti, P C. The Art of War in Ancient India. Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1972. Print.
The author, Chakravarti, talks of the ancient Indian war and gives an account of the war known
as the ancient Hindus. The author has talked about the two old wars of Ramayan and the
Mahabharata, which are among the indigenous literary work of the Indians. The author has
brought out the war chariots and the elephants in chapter one that was the first story of having
the elephants in war.

Nosov, K, and Peter Dennis. War Elephants. Oxford: Osprey, 2008. Print.
The author has discussed the aspects of elephants and the war and has emphasized that the war
and he usage of the elephants in the front line as war weapons have lasted for three thousand
years. He has stated that the usage of the elephants in the war was reduced by the usage of
gunpowder in the 7th century. The author has also dismissed the notion that the elephants were
the gimmicks of warfare and has insisted in his writing that the elephants deserve respect for they
have fought for human masters.
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Rance, Philip. "Elephants in Warfare in Late Antiquity." Acta Antiqua. 43.3 (2003): 355-384.
Print.
The author has brought out the ideas of taming of the elephants, the Antiquity in India during the
middle ages and the modern ages too. The author has also grouped the antiquity into three areas
which are the Indian, the Mediterranean, and the Far East.

Work Cited

Chakravarti, P C. The Art of War in Ancient India. Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1972. Print.
Charles, Michael B. "The Rise of the Sassanian Elephant Corps." Iranica Antiqua
(leiden). 42 (2007). Print.

Nosov, K, and Peter Dennis. War Elephants. Oxford: Osprey, 2008. Print.

Rance, Philip. "Elephants in Warfare in Late Antiquity." Acta Antiqua. 43.3 (2003): 355384. Print.