The British forces in India during a war rarely put elephants into the field for active service, the animals being too conspicuous, and too valuable to risk. But with the Burmese, this was different; they were prodigal of their elephants. During a Burmese war, a garrison of infantry and cavalry marched out with seventeen war elephants, fully caparisoned, and bearing a number of armed men. They advanced upon a fort amid a murderous fire, which killed the men upon them, and their mahouts; but in no case did an elephant lose its head. They stood the fire steadily until their mahouts were shot; and then, feeling themselves unrestrained, they slowly and calmly walked back to their fort, their bravery and courage being greatly admired by the opposing force.
In the last half-century, in any revolt, or where Indian native troops have been brought against the English, elephants have been rarely used; experience showing that their slow movements render them unfit for valuable or active service in the field.
Perhaps the last time they were seen in their former grandeur was in the war of Coromandel, when the British were fighting the native chiefs. The latter came out on some occasions equipped like the old Mogul emperors, to be described later on. The nabob of Arcot and his famous rival, Chundasaheb, both came upon the field on elephants; and had not a French bullet put an end to the former, a duel by these potentates would have been witnessed. As soon as the nabob caught sight of his rival’s elephant, bedecked with its owner’s standard, he became furious, and offered his mahout a valuable reward if he would make his elephant overthrow that of his enemy, who was the author of his defeat. The mahout was urging the elephant on, when a bullet struck the nabob in the heart, and he fell from the howdah. Soon after this tragic event, Nazir-jing, a son of the Mogul, entered the Carnatic with a most imposing force,—a battalion of thirteen hundred elephants, three hundred thousand soldiers, and eight hundred pieces of cannon. He, too, was shot from his elephant.
An elephant duel was observed in the field between Murzafa-jing, the Soubah of the Carnatic, and the nabob of Canoul. The elephants of the rivals were urged toward each other by the mahouts; and Murzafa-jing raised his sword to strike, when his adversary thrust his javelin, which pierced his forehead, killing him on the spot. At the same instant, at least a thousand bullets were fired at the nabob, who also fell, mortally wounded, from his elephant.
The introduction of fire-arms into warfare was the cause of the withdrawal of the elephant from active field-work. The great creature was too prominent a target, and the men upon its back were the most conspicuous objects in the field. It was a long time, however, before the natives would give up this animal, so strong was custom. From its back, the old generals directed their warriors and the movements of the battle; and, when the elephant left the field, it was usually a sign that a retreat had been ordered, and rout generally followed.
In the battle in which Aurengzebe gained the victory over Dara, he ordered his elephant’s legs to be chained, so that he could not retreat. Bernier tells this story as follows:—
“Calil-ullah had suffered some indignity at the hands of Dara, and he considered the hour arrived when he might gratify the resentment which had never ceased to rankle in his bosom. His abstinence from all share in the battle did not, however, produce the mischief intended, Dara having proved victorious without the co-operation of the right wing. The traitor, therefore, had recourse to another expedient. He quitted his division, followed by a few persons; and riding with speed towards Dara, precisely at the same moment when that prince was hastening to assist in the downfall of Morud-Bakche, he exclaimed, while yet at some distance, ‘Mohbarek bad! Hazaret! Salamet! Elhamd-ul-ellah! May you be happy! May your Majesty enjoy health, and reign in safety! The victory is your own! But let me ask, why are you still mounted on this lofty elephant? Have you not been sufficiently exposed to danger? If one of the numberless arrows or balls, which have pierced your canopy, had touched your person, who can imagine the dreadful situation to which we should be reduced? In Heaven’s name, descend quickly, and mount your horse: nothing now remains but to pursue the fugitives with vigor. I entreat your Majesty, permit them not to escape.’
“Had Dara considered the consequences of quitting the back of his elephant, on which he had displayed so much valor, and served as a rallying-point of the army, he would have become master of the empire; but the credulous prince, duped by the artful obsequiousness of Calil-ullah, listened to his advice as though it had been sincere. He descended from the elephant, and mounted his horse; but a quarter of an hour had not elapsed, when, suspecting the imposture, he inquired impatiently for Calil-ullah. The villain was not, however, within his reach; he inveighed vehemently against that officer, and threatened him with death; but Dara’s rage was now impotent, and his menace incapable of being executed. The troops having missed their prince, a rumor quickly spread that he was killed, and the army betrayed; a universal panic seized them; every man thought only of his own safety, and how to escape from the resentment of Aurengzebe. In a few minutes the army seemed disbanded, and (strange and sudden reverse!) the conqueror became the vanquished. Aurengzebe remained for a quarter of an hour steadily on his elephant, and was rewarded with the crown of Hindostan. Dara left his own elephant a few minutes too soon, and was hurled from the pinnacle of glory to be numbered among the most miserable of princes.”
The younger brother of Dara, the famous Sultan Sujah, lost his empire in an almost identical manner, or owing to the elephant being a rallying-point. A French engineer raised the siege of Daman by an ingenious device. They had a large supply of fireworks, principally rockets; and, sallying forth, they fired them in among Aurengzebe’s elephants, causing them to turn on their own troops, creating the greatest confusion and an ultimate rout.
In the old Mogul empire, the armor of elephants called to mind that used in the age of chivalry. The elephants of Akbar wore plates of massive iron upon their foreheads; while the king of Ternassery, who was famous for his enormous elephants, all being selected, like the Swiss Guard, for their great size, had his animals covered completely with armor made of beef-hides, which were fastened beneath the stomach with heavy chains. The “Ayeen Akbery” (a native work) “is more minute. ‘Five plates of iron, each one cubit long and four fingers broad, are joined together by rings, and fastened round the ears of the elephant by four chains, each an ell in length; and betwixt these another chain passes over the head, and is fastened in the kellawah; and across it are four iron spikes, with katasses and iron knobs. There are other chains, with iron spikes and knobs, hung under the throat and over the breast, and others fastened to the trunk: these are for ornament, and to frighten horses. Pakher is a kind of steel armor that covers the body of the elephant: there are other pieces of it for the head and proboscis. Gejjhemp is a covering made of three folds, and is laid over the pakher.’ Dow adds, that ‘a sword is bound to their trunk, and daggers are fastened to their tusks.’ But the mighty power of the animal in crushing the ranks of an enemy was principally relied upon. The armor and the swords were to add to the dismay which an immense troop of elephants were of themselves calculated to produce. The emperor of Akbar well knew their power in scattering masses of terrified men. On one occasion, when he stormed the fort of Chitar, the garrison retired to the temples. ‘Akbar, perceiving he must lose a great number of his troops in case of a close attack, ordered a distant fire to be kept up upon the desperate Rajaputs, till he had introduced three hundred elephants of war, which he immediately ordered to advance to tread them to death. The scene now became too shocking to be described. Brave men, rendered more valiant by despair, crowded around the elephants, seized them even by the tusks, and inflicted upon them unavailing wounds. The terrible animals trod the Indians like grasshoppers under their feet, or, winding them in their powerful trunks, tossed them aloft into the air, or dashed them against the walls and pavements. Of the garrison, which consisted of eight thousand soldiers and of forty thousand inhabitants, thirty thousand were slain, and most of the rest taken prisoners.’ In the rapid marches of this victorious prince, the elephants suffered greatly. Purchas, speaking of his progress from Kashmire in 1597, says, ‘This country he left when summer was past, and returned to Lahore, losing many elephants and horses in the way, both by famine, then oppressing the country, and the difficulty of the passages; the elephants sometimes, in the ascent of the hills, helping themselves with their trunks, leaning and staying themselves, being burthened, thereon, as on a staff.’”