History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c13.1

v1.c13.1

We will now pass on to the army. It consisted of foot, horse and elephant. The fourth arm, the chariot is mentioned no doubt by Hiuen Tsang but probably he here mentions the conventional four arms or chaturanga of the Indian army. Bāṇa describes most minutely the army of Harsha and we find no mention therein of the chariot. Hiuen Tsang also does not mention chariots when he details the strength of Harsha's army. The elephant was from ancient days the most formidable arm of the Indian forces. Foreigners feared Indian armies for the elephant corps. Elephants were then what artillery is now-a-days in Europe. And the greater the number of elephants, the greater was the power of the army in much the same way as the greater the number of cannon in modern armies, the greater is their power of destruction. These numerous elephants were supplied by the immense forests fringing the Himalayas and the Vindhyas as already mentioned. The art of catching elephants, of rearing them and of training them to fight had almost reached perfection in the 7th century and there were regular treatises on all these subjects. The use of the elephant again developed the courage, the strength and the skill of fighters with elephants. The Indian soldiers and horsemen often grappled with elephants with effect. And when put to flight the elephant force was usually a nuisance to its own employers. The elephant arm was thus both a source of strength as well as of weakness to Indian armies as history has often recorded. Probably the commander manœuvered the elephant force in battles in such a way that in the event of its turning back it could not do harm to the rest of the army. On the march the elephant force was always kept at a distance as Bāṇa has described (see below).