The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c12.71

c12.71

A stately force it was with which the Indian monarch moved forth to defend his country against the audacious invader from the west. Two hundred huge elephants, stationed at intervals of not less than a hundred feet from one another, and probably in eight ranks, formed the front in the centre.¹ The chief reliance of Pōros was on these monsters who would, it was calculated, terrify the foreign soldiers and render the dreaded cavalry unmanageable. Behind the elephants stood a compact force of 30,000 infantry with projections on the wings, and files of the infantry were pushed forward in the intervals between the elephants, so that the Indian army presented ‘very much the appearance of a city—the elephants as they stood resembling its towers, and the men-at-arms placed between them resembling the lines of wall intervening between tower and tower’ (Diodorus, xvii, 87). Both flanks were protected by cavalry with chariots in front. The cavalry numbered 4,000 and the chariots 300. Each chariot was drawn by four horses, and carried six men, of whom two were archers, stationed one on each side of the vehicle, two were shield-bearers, and two were charioteers, who in the stress of battle were wont to drop the reins and ply the enemy with darts (Q. Curtius, viii, 14).