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The origin and development of ancient war elephants

The war elephant, a special force that appeared in the history of ancient warfare, played the role of a tank in the modern army in ancient wars. The trained war elephants are brave and invincible when they are in battle. They can break through city gates, destroy camps, dismantle weapons, step on enemy troops, and fall into enemy positions, often causing great damage to the enemy.

History
Origin

About 4,000 years ago, the Indus civilization began to domesticate elephants. But elephants are not fully domesticated, and people must capture them in the wild for use. The first species to be domesticated was the Asian elephant, mainly used for agriculture. The first time humans drove elephants into battle was in ancient India around 1100 BC. This was recorded in several chants of India during the Vedic period at that time. Around the same time, the Chinese people of the Shang Dynasty were also the first to incorporate elephants into the army. The people of the Shang Dynasty domesticated elephants that lived in the Yellow River basin.

Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh in South Asia, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries in Southeast Asia are rich in elephants and are known as the hometown of elephants. Tropical jungle areas such as Yunnan in my country are also the resorts for elephants to breed and inhabit.

Elephant is the largest living land animal in the world. But the elephant is not clumsy. It is naturally intelligent and humane. Although the elephant moves slowly, it is like walking on flat ground, and the steep mountain road is regarded as a smooth road. Therefore, the Asian and African regions rich in elephants have a tradition of using elephants as means of transportation and postmen since ancient times. Its daunting physique and giant strength are even more favored by military strategists.

Develop

The Persian Empire used war elephants obtained from India in several campaigns. The battle between the Persian Empire and Alexander the Great’s Gaugamela on October 1, 331 BC was probably the first time Europeans faced a war elephant. Fifteen war elephants arranged in the center of the Persian army array brought great shock to the Macedonian army. So much so that on the eve of the battle Alexander felt the need to sacrifice to the god of fear. The Battle of Gaugamela was a glorious victory for Alexander.

But he was impressed by the enemy’s war elephants. After conquering Persia, Alexander recognized the use of war elephants and incorporated a group of war elephants into his army. Five years later, Alexander, who had invaded India, already knew how to deal with war elephants at the battle of the Hydaspes at Pyrus.

Pyrus, who ruled the (now) Punjab and Pakistan at the time, invested eighty-five war elephants in this battle, posing a huge threat to Alexander. But in the end Alexander prevailed. At this time, there are more than 6,000 war elephants in contemporary Bangladesh and Magadha in northeastern India. Soon after, “Chandragupta Peacock” had more than 9,000 war elephants. These two huge numbers are beyond the reach of the number of war elephants used by the Persians and Greeks.

The use of war elephants began to spread. Alexander’s successors invested hundreds of war elephants from India in the war. The Ptolemaic Egyptians and Carthaginians began domesticating African elephants for warfare. The Numidians and Kush also began to tame elephants. They domesticated the African forest elephant.

It is safe to say that the remaining elephants in North Africa eventually perished due to overcapture by humans. This species of forest elephant is smaller than the Asian elephant used by the Seleucid dynasty. They are often prevented from being driven into battle due to fear. African savannah elephants are larger than forest and Asian elephants.

Domesticating steppe elephants for warfare has proven to be very difficult, and its use is not widespread. In 217 BC, at the Battle of Raphia between Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty, the forest elephants of the Egyptian army were smaller than their rival Asian elephants. But Antiochus III (the Great) of the Seleucid Dynasty did not win.

Sri Lankan historical documents record that the mounts of the kings who led their armies on the battlefield were elephants. In the famous encounter between the two kings in 200 BC, the elephant named “Kandula” was the mount of the king “Dutugamunu”, and the elephant named “Maha Pabbata” was the mount of the king “Elahara”. The ancient Roman historian “Pliny” mentioned that “Megastenes” recorded a version of “Onesicritus”.

It is said that Sri Lankan elephants are larger, more ferocious, and more suitable for use in the battlefield compared to other types of elephants. This, coupled with the geographic proximity of Sri Lankan elephants to seaports, makes the sale of Sri Lankan elephants a lucrative trade. Even in times of peace, death sentences like trampling were used on traitors and other criminals who violated the laws of the country and violated the royal authority.

Centuries after Alexander’s death, armies on the battlefields of Europe used war elephants against Rome. From the battle of “Heraclea” in Pyrrhus in 280 BC to Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, war elephants stunned the Roman legions. Like Alexander, the Romans found tactics against war elephants.

At the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, the charge of Hannibal’s Elephants had no effect. Because the array of the Roman army left a passage for the enemy’s war elephant to charge. More than a hundred years later, at the Battle of Tarpsus in 46 BC, Caesar equipped the Fifth Legion with a tomahawk and directed the legionaries to focus on attacking the legs of the war elephant.

The regiment resisted the charge of the war elephants. The war elephant later became the symbol of the Fifth Legion. The Battle of Tapsus was the last significant instance of the use of war elephants on the Western battlefield. Pigs are said to be an effective weapon against war elephants. Pliny the Elder wrote: “A war elephant is terrified of the scream of the smallest pig.”

It is said that successful clearance of the city of Megara. The Megara poured boiling oil on a group of pigs, set them on fire, and drove them to the enemy’s war elephants. Facing the screaming herd of pigs with flames on their bodies, the war elephants fled in fear.

The Parthian Empire occasionally used war elephants in its wars with the Romans. However, war elephants were an important part of the army of the Sassanid Persian Empire that followed. Sassanid Persia used war elephants many times in its war with its Western enemies. In this famous battle of “Vartanantz”, the Persian war elephant caused fear in the Armenian army, which in turn smashed the Armenian rebellion. Another example is the battle of “al-Qādisiyyah”, in which the Persian army used a large number of war elephants.

In medieval Europe, people rarely used war elephants. Charlemagne brought his war elephant “Abul-Abbas” in his campaign against the Danes in 804. The crusaders of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II captured an elephant in the sanctuary and used it in the battle for the capture of Cremona in 1214.

The use of war elephants by an Islamic monarch in India all but ended Timur’s campaign. In a battle in 1398, Timur’s army was almost defeated by panic in the face of an enemy army of more than 100 war elephants.

Historians comment that the battle was won by Timur with a genius strategy: before the battle he ordered burning straws to be piled on the camels’ backs. disintegrated and failed attempts to cause the enemy to retreat.

Another comment on this campaign comes from “Ahmed ibn Arabshah”, who says that Timur’s use of a large number of cavalry delayed the charge of the Elephants. After this war, the Timurid army used war objects against the Ottoman Turks.

According to records, when King “Rajasinghe the First” besieged the Portuguese fort in Colombo (the modern capital of Sri Lanka) in 1558, he had a phalanx of more than 2,000 war elephants under his command. The head of the royal stables of the king “Rajasinghe” was called “Gaja Nayake Nilame”. A colleague of the stable master is “Kuruve Lekham”. He is in charge of leading the elephant riders, the so-called “Kuruwe”. The duty of the elephant driver is to train war elephants.

Functional shift

Beginning in the late fifteenth century, wars in Europe entered the age of firearms. It was ridiculous to organize a war elephant charge from then on, because artillery could easily defeat them. Since then, people no longer drive elephants into battle, but undertake other military tasks until World War II.

Elephants take on tasks that machines cannot do in some areas.