Indian War Elephants: Tanks on the Ancient and Medieval Battlefield
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2020
- Indian war elephants have long captured the popular imagination, in movies and video games alike. But few have tackled what it was "really like" to employ war elephants on the field of battle.
In India, the use of armored war elephants continued through the medieval era, and even into the early modern era. Was this a foolish strategic decision, or was there still a use for war elephants in a time where the battlefield was dominated by horse archers?
Enjoy!
Non-Exhaustive List of Sources:
"The Elephant in Ancient War" by Richard Glover
"Elephants in Ancient Indian Armies" by B. P. Sinha
"KANDULA: Elucidations on the Sinhala War Elephant" by Merlin Peris
"Indian Elephant Corps Under the Ghaznavids" by S. Jabir Raza
#warelephants #indianhistory #elephants
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Music:
Jalandhar Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Hey everyone, hope you enjoy this latest video! It should be relevant not only to those interested in Indian history, but anyone who is interested in SE Asian history (where war elephants were employed into the early modern era as well).
If you'd like some supplemental history tidbits, I encourage you to follow me on instagram: instagram.com/oddcompasshistory/
We always hear about the European armor of knights or the samurai armor from Japan, but what did the armor of trained soldiers from India wear?
It depends a lot on region, era, and class! In the medieval era, low-level peasant soldiers would likely wear folded, thick woven cloth (for light protection against arrows and blades, along with a large shield), while nobility and elite soldiers would wear chainmail.
Hello bro make video on sher sha sur
Hey Ali, I'll keep it in mind -- a bit swamped with topics at the moment!
Love you like a teacher i never had🤣🤣 just waiting for the next video
Fiction: Fire Dragons 🐉
History: War Elephants 🐘
Very subtle
No wonder Cersi wanted Elephants from the golden compant
Leviathan is real but not letting itself be discovered. See new creatures discovered every year or even every month in deep sea dives.
You just roasted china
Fiction: Bloodlust
History: Druglust
Before this video: "Elephants are so cute"
After the video: "That drunk and high elephant with poisoned sword tusks is going to bite your head off and toss you with its trunk."
They usually hold you down with one front leg and tear you in half with the trunk.
Indian kings often used elephants to execute people. The prisoner would and the elephant would be locked in an enclosure and the elephant would trample them to death
🤣
I feel like Indian history is pretty underrated after this video
Haha yeah, it really deserves to be talked about more!
@@OddCompass I am ethnically Swedish so I am usually into European history. This channel though has made me interested in Asian/Indian history. Your videos are so high quality, I am suprised you aren't famous yet.
Welcome to the channel! And thank you for the kind words. I think many people do not realize how much interesting Indian history there is, so the topics aren’t as “viral” - but the channel is slowly growing, so I’m hopeful there’s an audience for this content!
@@OddCompass yes sir there is an audience. Could you do more about North East India. EVEN INDIANS ARE CURIOUS ABOUT THAT part of the country. Views and followers guaranteed.
That’s what I’ve been saying for so long India would make the perfect assassin‘s creed
Meanwhile, Indians in Age of Empires 2 have the worst elephant unit.
lol, so true, hopefully aoe4 will have better and viable elephants.
I use Persians to represent Indians in The Conquerors expansion which is all I have, and I enjoy using India in my realistic map of Eurasia or my realistic map of the Spanish lake or the realistic map of the world. Check them out in my videos on each map. In Rise of Nations the Indians were cool, and I think I learned the word "mahout" from that game.
AOE 2 didn’t have India but AOE3 did. And those elephants could turn the tides of a battle if used right.
@@---ko1dg Have you even played aoe 2?....it does have India
elephant archer.....
In the epic Mahabharata, there is description of famous king Bhagadatta, fighting on the side of the Kauravas, arriving in the battlefield on his legendary battle elephant Supratika. The behemoth caused sheer delirium and panic among the Pandava army and caused destruction of exorbitant proportion. Bhima,the strongest of the Pandavas,son of the Air God Pavana, was himself a demigod having power equivalent to 10000 elephants and yet was manhandled by the beast. Finally the elephant was somehow managed to be killed, but this video reminded me of that incident and how we're carrying on with the traditions of battle elephants ever since.
Elephants were also used to pull heavy artilery.
yes in vietnam war, you can find some footage
They were artillery,ndians had put about500 metal rockets with a range of 2km on them.
Don't they also have archers and cannons on them?
Yes,you are correct but whats more interesting,a war elephant with 5 archers on its back or a war elephant with about 500 rockets on its back
I love Indian and South East Asian history and I'm so happy that I managed to come across a channel like yours.
Thank you so much! Stay tuned, lots more to come :)
Read about North-Western India (Rajasthan) history ✌️
@@Iam-cx2vtno😂
Jk
all dislikes r from those who were throttle by Indian elephants in their past life
@@Dark_Shade91 Alexander too
This comment is as old as my dead great great grandfather
@@yeetusfeetus713lol XD
@@Dark_Shade91 edgy, and doesnt even work really...
😂😂
Rome: We have great warriors on our side
India: Hold my drunk riders
Wtf lol drunk riders 🤣🤣🤣
@日本人 And? They legit lost everything now
@日本人 bro they had the world but now just confined to a tiny island where sun doesn't even rise anymore
@日本人 I think he meant that they've lost everything with regard to military. If am not wrong they're not even on the top 5 when their former colony(India) is in the fourth position in the military power ranking.
@日本人 It doesn't mitigate the fact that India is 4th in items of military power and uk is way below that India lol. Regardless of what they do Uk can never become a top military power in current scenario coz they no longer have their Indian soldiers to fight hehe.
Earlier today I had the question, "Were war elephants real?" as I've never really learned about them. I've looked it up and found your video, and I just need to say great work! I'm looking at the comments section and you seem to reply to nearly every comment which is commendable, I hope to see you grow because you deserve way more attention!
That’s very kind of you - thanks! I hope you enjoy the rest of the channel :)
Hannibal used war elephants to invade the Roman Republic during the second Punic War.
@@OddCompass seriously bro I must say the same thing, great work I’m absolutely loving your channel x
If you ever Read all The lord of the rings after finishing reading the Hobbit or just skip to the movies, you get to see some action of War elephants like Mûmakil (Oliphaunts)
Fantastic information...
War Elephants, the Indians Main Battle Tank.
Yes I agreed, there’s an advantages and also disadvantages.
It’s quite scary when your elephants are totally out of control. But anyway, the creation of more modern artilleries, Gatling gun totally changed the warfare.
Yeah -- a berserk elephant must have been a truly terrifying thing to behold! The increasing ubiquity of rifling (and high-caliber guns in general) definitely brought about an end to "traditional" modes of warfare in India. Thanks for watching!
Old + New = Gatling Gun Elephant
Yes Indians still use Elephant in Borders of Burma,China claiming Indian Territory and forestry Border.
Agreed. I remember seeing some British historian derisively speaking if them as crude terror weapons that would fail against "disciplined Western troops."
I couldn't help but think if pachyderms had been native to the British Isles that doubtlessly they would have been employed and regarded by that same historian as "mobile weapons platforms combining mobility, armor and firepower. The forerunner of the tank."
My paternal grandfather was a vet in the Indian Army. He treated and performed surgery on the war camels in the 1965 and 1971 wars against Pakistan. To this day, India is the only country that has used camels for warfare!
Interesting!
Yes 1965 war I think
What are you on... Of course camels were used in warfare by many forces, from ancient times
@@user-vr8qd4hk6y He said "To this day"
@@wagwan2 Exactly. BS. India is NOT the only country 'to this day' that used camels in warfare. No idea what are you confused about.
Nothing is more terrifying than a trained, courageous War elephant
Less than 50k subscribers for a channel with this level of quality and indepth analysis of historic content .
Where are my Indians.
I'm an indian.
I keep sharing these videos for better reach, indeed more people need to know about this channel
Indian only study engineering sadly
@@rajas9803don't forget biology 😂😅
Great content. I feel bad for the poor beasts. Fight through so much chaos. They are one of the most gentle creatures.
I appreciate it! And yeah, it does make you wonder how much they had to suffer for the greed of mankind
You are wrong
We worship Elephants
They are like us in battlefield
I was stopped for 2 hrs in Kerela because elephants were crossing roads
@@spaceexplorer5481 in kerala we have elephant fans assosiation we worship them and if anyone touch them ur gone
I can't help but feel ten times worse for the human beings that had to be killed by them. People certainly come up with inventive and exhaustive ways to kill one another.
Hey just want to say that I am so glad to find a really good educational RUclips channel that almost exclusively focuses on South Asian history. I think this region of the world is unbelievably fascinating, and it’s great to be able to learn more through this platform. Please keep up the great work! You have earned another subscriber! 🙏
Thank you Gabriel! That’s very kind. Looking forward to putting out some more content 👍
Search angry elephant noise, enough to make a grown man shit his pants
@Вхламинго I'm no history scholar but Alexander did fought Porus of India and was satisfied and returned home, later his general Necetar fought Chandragupta Maurya or Sandrokotos and was utterly defeated. Turks and Arabs had Gun powder and heavy canons with them and that was one of the major reasons how they managed to win with small numbers.
@@abhinavneoharysvarma8551 That too because silk road passed through them, so turks and central asians were one of the first people to lay they hands on Gunpowder after it was invented in China.
@@abhinavneoharysvarma8551 They had better cavalry, Arab horses were finest and very crucial to win a battle. North Indian kingdoms were always at war with each other and never united. Moreover, they were petty kings, who did not possess large army to counter invaders.
On a philosophical Note: It is observed throughout history that only those places with scarce resources and very hard life(Arabia, Afghanistan, Mongolia) produced tougher and battle hardened men whose primary occupation was raiding and looting the neighboring Settlements.
While Indians were content with fertile land, monsoons, 3 crops in a year, these invaders were fighting for every scrap of food and drop of water.
@@PulkitDhiman Yeah, but I'm talking about how gained upper hand in their initial conquests. No matter how fine and skilled they were they couldn't win against an army twice of their size without the help of gun powder. Also google marwari horses, they're a unique breed of horse. Rajput and even warriors from Punjab region were literal beasts, google Maha Rana pratap. Yes, I do agree that not all Indians were like them and both Turk and Arab armies had more local Indians than soldiers from their native land
@@PulkitDhiman Also traditional Indian conquests were very different, they would conquer a land and made king swear an oath collect revenue and leave. These foreign invaders would impose religion and in most cases dethrone and replace the king with their own or marry the king's daughter. They would also impose heavy taxes for religion and forcefully convert the local population while destroying temples or converting them. This helped tighten their hold on the regions
perhaps one of the best video on Indian elephants. While we've always seen the rather barbaric fights of African elephants amongst themselves on wildlife channels, a charging war elephant is a rare spectacle these days. Thankyou for this amazing presentation that brought this terrifying medieval tank back to life
Great comment, thanks for watching! I can’t imagine how terrifying it would have been to fight a charging war elephant 🐘
Hanibil used African elephant against Roman Empire. He took such elephant on a path that was very difficult to journey through. Just stating when britan used war elephant against Nepal at anglo Gurkha war. Britan elephant were unwilling to journey on (they were eithered left or killed). African elephant are not adapted to such difficult glacier and mountain yet hanibil determination moved such creature. Similarly Asian elephant are suppose to be more stable in such environment, stating for fact that Nepal have elephant as well, infact 12 elephants were given to neighbouring mugal empire from Nepali kingdom. training and being obident from young age and are the key reason for how hanibil could move such creature in the Alpine region. Don't think African elephant can not be trained. They have bigger tusk, size, and probably more scarier than Asian elephant. How you train them is the main factor relating to there effectiveness. It is true that war elephant are generally used by Asia. However hanibil used his African elephant as well.
Elephant with blade tusks: cyberpunk music starts
Elephant with flail tusks: cyberpunk music entencifies
I'm commenting here for RUclips algorithm because this video deserves to be more popularity. And this channel deserves 1 million subscribers.
Where are you getting your data from ? Man ! I have never seen anyone explaining chola history in such an elaborate way. Thanks for your work!!
I'm sharing the channel to everyone I know!
Thank you for sharing, I genuinely appreciate it! My sources are in the descriptions (and in pinned comments for some videos). For a detailed explanation of medieval Chola empire and culture, I recommend reading “From Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa.” Enjoy!
Given how intelligent elephants are this is amazing. The skill it takes to train an intelligent life form to do such complex actions is incredibly impressive.
3 disastrous battles that sealed the fate of India involved Kings/Commanders mounted on Elephants -
1008- Battle of Chaach when King Anandpal’s elephant scared by flying arrows ran amok, causing confusion and rout of own army
1556- Second Battle of Panipat, King Hemu sitting atop his elephant was targeted by Mugal soldiers. Hit in his eye by an arrow he fell and was taken captive to be beheaded
1761- 3rd Battle of Panipat. Invading Afghans shot the Maratha prince atop his elephant causing collapse of the Maratha reserve. His uncle’s frontal charge couldn’t get any backup.
Elephants + music + alcohol and drugs in war, what could be more crazier?
Reminds me of some scenes from The newest Mad Max movie :P
Take them over the alpines
drugs in war?
@@cruelplatypus67 five shots of vodka for mother russia
@@salmansingh66 u mean Hannibal Barca's passage through the Alps in winter that led to ancient history's second world war or better known as The Second Punic war between Carthage and Rome🙂
Knowing how elephant teeth work, imagining an elephant biting a man's head off is a horrifying thought
They kind of remind me of the AT AT walkers from Star Wars
Haha, they are kinda similar!
Lucas was greatly influenced by eastern traditions, after all
When britan also used indian war elephants against Nepal during anglo Gurkha war. But these elephant were mostly hindersnce as they were not willing to travel in difficult Nepali Terain. Britan even had to make path for the elephant, so much so that they either had to kill or leave the elephants at nepal. They probably thoughts about how hanibil had taken African war Elephant to glaciers mountain and outsmarted Roman Empire with his powerfull war elephant. Nepal did have war elephant as well, it stated that Nepali kingdome gave 12 elephants anually to mugal empire. Elephant are just to costly from training from young age to looking after them, however they did give strategic advantage. There are advantages and disadvantages of all battlefield wepons.
Thanks for the excellent info!
Total bollocks
Rashtrakutas conquered Himalayas of nepal to ceylon in sri Lanka
The inscriptions says that
The horse of govinda-3 drank from icy himalayan streams , and his war elephants tasted the sacred waters of the ganges
And nepal king nanya deva of nepal is from Karnataka 🟨🟥
I did not expect this video coming, this was super amazing! Though, I feel particularly sad for elephants, because unlike horses, goats, and camels, they were never domesticated, only tamed. So, they must have really suffered from all the battlefield trauma(as a wild animal), even if they were trained to fight:(
That is very true - in researching this video, it struck me how much trauma these poor elephants were subjected to for the ambitions of their human masters
The history of war elephants in India is the triumph of tradition over experience.
Very true!
What makes you say that?if tradition was the major factor why did Mughals employ war elephants?which middle eastern tradition could they be using?
@@anujagarwal7992 inspired from pre existing native tradition ofc
@@Akon1998hell exactly
It was a triumph of experience that is why elephants survived in history of warfare in india,even foreign kingdoms who came to India continued to use war elephants for its continued usage in various forms of warfare.
Innovation would be better word instead of experience.
I appreciate you referring to some sri lankan history...as a sri lankan it makes me proud ...The story about the duel between two elephants was one that I heard from my grandfather when he was alive.
This is the first channel I've seen dedicated to Indian history with quality videos, keep making these!
Thank you for mentioning kannada empires like chalukyas, rashtrakutas and Mysore..most of the indian historians ignore the glorious history of Deccan plateau and concentrate only on north india
Please make more videos on other kannada empires as well.
This is such a great channel. I’m so glad I found it. Thank you and please continue. This will blow up HUGE one day
Glad you enjoy it, and thanks!
Thank you for making quality videos of Indian history !!!!
Ever since I first played age of empires 2 and my civ was stuck next to the Persians and seen a horde of elephants trampling over my shit was when I first thought of these things as medieval tanks.
One more way the elephants could be beaten were pigs
The elephants are scared of pigs, so when you were attacked by elephants you could send out pigs which would freak out the elephants.
So armies raised their elephants with pigs in order to make them not afraid of pigs.
Until someone had the bright idea of burning pigs, which the elephants didn't have experience of.
Thanks for the additional info!
Ah yes, the roast pork strat
Ah the Flaming War Pig. That would be the Romans against Pyrrhus who brought 20 Indian war elephants with him to Italy. Pyrrhus was given those as a gift from Ptolemy to help him take back his kingdom. Who in turn got elephants that used to belong to Seleucus. Who received 500 war elephants as part of a peace agreement from Chandragupta.
Seleucus used those elephants in his battle against Antigonus. He kept them in the rear in reserve. Apparently, Pyrrhus was 16 years old and fought in the Antigonid Cavalry wing that managed to defeat their counterparts and was about to swing around and hit Seleucus in the rear in the typical hammer and anvil tactic of the Macedonians. Normally this would be the end. But the 400 elephants Seleucus placed in the rear were in the way and frightened the cavalry away.
I sometimes wonder if Pyrrhus' 20 elephants were present on that battlefield.
Those elephants had one hell of a life.😅
@@tylerdurden3722 How empty must the land be of people and buildings that you could fit thousands of soldiers and hundreds of elephants on the battlefield. How many days do they even prepare to station them? Crazy times back then.
i am so glad that somebody has invested in Indian history with so much details. please tell us the source of your information also.
Amazing videos man... It's a real treasure of Indian history long forgotten
Thank you!
Such a great and very detailed video about Indian war elephants. Thanks for the content. You are doing great! Its also nice to hear correct pronounciation of indian names from someone who is from outside India.
Thanks a lot fpr making the video, you explained it so beautifully!
Just as I was wondering why he doesn’t post more vids,, thanks
Haha yeah, this one took me awhile, been quite busy with work and some other things!
Thanku for recognising our indian talent.
Thank you for making videos on India.....,❤️❤️
Amazed by your detailed knowledge of Indian history. You earned a subscriber today, keep up the good work.
Thanks 🙏🏽
Best produced channel on unknown Indian history.
I like your content. The amount of love and effort you put in these videos is admirable.
You described Indian war tactics better than Indians.
i think he is ( at least ethnically)
Came here from playing Age of empires 3 definitive edition. Ended up staying because Indian history is truly amazing. Oldest history in the world 🌎
What about Aoe4
Commenting so that the algorithm would publicise this video more
Felt a deep chill imagining these battles with raging mammoths
Great quality content. Love it!
Thank you!
That's true for the entire South Asian sub-continent, even today.
I'm glad they are no longer used the battlefield.
why?
An chinese traveller has written that Cholas had 60,000 war elephants.
Great video again! I love it.
Thanks!
That was very interesting looking for to more history videos.
I just found this channel from Useful Charts, loving the production quality for such a small channel! Out if curiosity, which of the sources did you get the info on elephant weaponry (flails, rams, etc.) from? I'm interested in doing a bit if research into it myself since I haven't seen much on the topic before.
Hey, thanks for checking out the channel, glad you’re enjoying it! I don’t recall which of my sources specifically talks about those weapons, but I’d probably start with the Sri Lanka and Ghaznavid ones. There are additional citations there that are more general and will give you a nice intro into armor and arms!
Its also worth pointing out that indian people were the first in the entire world to tame elephants, thats pretty damn impressive
Best video on indian elephant s
great video
Loved the graphics and story-telling. Well done and keep it up.
Omg how do you not have millions of subscribers! Keep it up!
Great video thanks 👍
Liked and subscribed! Great channel
awesome video. Thanks.
Excellent video as usual. Great explanation.!! :-)
Thanks for your comment, Trishit -- cheers!
Thank you for your work ! I was wondering exactly that after reading about multiple indian battles where the whole war elephant thing went really wrong.
You’re welcome! 👍🏽
It has 50% probability of wining and defeating battles
Another great incredible video and I expected no less! Fascinating how you talked about indigenous war tactics and the role of elephants!
I saw that during the Vijayanagar Empire's conquest of South India, they left out a sliver of coast on the Western Coast of what is present-day Kerala, does this indicate the Kingdom of Cochin was never inculcated? If so how come this was the only territory they didn't manage to conquer, despite them having such a great army?
Here in present-day Kochi, elephants are mostly seen in temple festivals and just last year, one of it crossed the road in front of my house as part of a temple procession nearby and its amazing thinking of how these mammoth beings were subjugated and employed as living tanks in ancient battles!
What a wonderful comment - thank you! Regarding Cochin, its history with Vijayanagar is somewhat mixed, with some historical records pointing out that they were feudatories, and others pointing out that they were independent, but that the Cochin Kingdom always had a “cautious eye” towards Vijayanagar. It’s worth noting, also, that once Cochin came under the Portuguese sphere of influence in the early 1500s, Vijayanagar would have stepped away from any ambitions it had against it - as Vijayanagar depended heavily on the Portuguese horse trade.
@@OddCompass oh that makes sense! I also read a bit about how the Kingdom of Cochin became the only South Asian protectorate of the Ming Empire. That was pretty fascinating to learn and explains about how there's a lot of Chinese influence here from our Chinese fishing net (Cheena-vala) to our language and words like Cheena Chatti, a type of pot to cook that's there in every household. I'm not sure if the Ming Empire was a contemporary of the Vijayanagara one but being the only protectorate of a foreign power, along with Portuguese ties could also balance powers. Its incredible how all of these history exists and how so little we know of em! Thanks for providing a platform to learn more about these!
Oh that’s really interesting - I had no idea that it was also a Ming protectorate! I’ll definitely research more into that. The Ming were contemporaries of Vijayanagar so that makes a lot of sense. And I’m glad to provide a platform for this history, thanks for watching 🙏
@@OddCompass it was after Zheng ye landed there with his treasure fleet... Cochin was in war with zamorin of Calicut He also mitigated a peace between them by making them a Ming protectorate!!
@@OddCompass do read up a blog named Maddy's Ramblings which are rich with the history of Kerala
Love from Mysore. Here we still use elephants in festival called Dasara
Love ya dp
Where you burn ravana?
Informative. Well done.
Really fantastic video, got a lot of new info. Although, a bit surprised to not see any mention of Timur's anti-elephantry tactics used against the Delhi Sultanate.
I really wish you would get more viewers, this is great content!
Hope you can make a video on the Satvahana dynasty sometime
Almost certainly will be covering the Satavahana Dynasty (hopefully sooner rather than later!). Glad you enjoyed the video 👍
Thanks for the new video sir!🎩🎩 Hats off to you
My pleasure!
Another Great Video!!!
Thanks Solomon!
@@OddCompass Your Welcome Bro!
Nice one
this is awesome! as an indian it's awesome to see history through the eyes of a non-indian :) cheers dude! subsrcibed!
Thanks! I'm actually Indian-American, but I suppose that gives me a different perspective as well haha. I appreciate the kind words!
@@OddCompass nice! It's good to see some fresh videos on some of the lesser mentioned kingdoms like the cholas and vijayanagara. Good stuff dude! Keep it comin, we need more south Indian representation in RUclips videos 😁
@MisterBraun Haha, will do! I'm excited for all the different topics that I still have to cover -- and agreed, South India deserves proper representation
Two dislikes are from those who got trampled 😂
28 now
Great Stuff!
Underrated channel❤️❤️❤️
Thanks 🙏🏽
Awesome
Really good work
Loved it ❤️❤️
Thank you!
This video actually explained alot of defeats suffered by Indian kings ....Against Ghuri army entire allied north Indian just because war elephant went berserk after taking arrow...entire allied army thought commander is running away..so ran too !
It’s a classic example. War elephants were great, but relying on anything too much will backfire
I hope your channel continues to grow.
WoW great explanation with details....Indian empire history retold like never before...
Thank you very much!
Fascinating
Superrrr
Amazing
Interesting
Great video, keep up the good work.
An another fact, most of the south Indian kingdoms had mastered anti elephant tactics in the field. They were highly trained group of Soldiers whose work was to kill elephants using Broad spear as you had mentioned and also they used broad swords with relative long handle to chop off the elephants trunks.
Thanks! And I appreciate the additional history info, I did read about soldiers using broadswords to chop off trunks - seems like a daring maneuver!
@@OddCompass They were truly daring men, it's scary to imagine facing a charging elephant. Sometimes they opened their ranks just enough to get out of harm's way and just kill the elephants.
Really 👍enjoyable
Amazing channel, subbed.
Welcome aboard!
Fantastic job mate
Thank you -- cheers!
Iranian king "Nader Shah" attacked India several times and in one of his battles against Indians, he used camels to scare war elephants. He ordered to put iron pots on the camels' back and fill them with fire and hot oil. Camels suffering from the burning hot pots began to scream and shout and running toward the war elephants. This tactic caused Indian war elephants to fear and attack friendly units, thus an easy win for the Iranians.
This was originally used by Tamerlane in his invasion of the Delhi Sultanate
Yeah camels frightened elephants
heck even the Achaemenids used camels to scare horses as the scent of a camel was new to them which caused them to flee and throw off their riders
At that time, muhammad shah ruled the moghul empire of delhi. He was an incapable general, did not know how to utilize his weapons properly and could not keep his commanders and armies united. More than the elephants, it was the ineffective moghul king that made the persian shah's victory easier
Chalukya quen Naayaki devi difeated Ghori with her elephant army.
Looter Nadir Shah & his pets.
Indians ? No, Nader Shah fought the Timurid Turks of Delhi, popularly known as Mughal nowadays, they were themselves outsiders, they never really spoke the contemporary Hindustani language, but the extinct chagatai language of Turkic language family
Superb analysis sir 👌.
Thank you!
Worth studying war horse manoeuvres vis a vis battle elephant. Battle of Haldighati, where Rana Pratap’s horse charged his cousin Man Singh’s elephant.
This channel is extremely underrated.
Only 19k views !
This deserves more.
aright I've found a new channel to binge.
Keep it going!