The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c16.2

c16.2

Akbar seems to have made much use of elephants, bringing them into the field in great numbers (Horn, 51, 52, 53). In his time they carried on their backs musketeers or archers. This practise seems to have soon ceased. But as late as 1131 H. (Nov.-Dec. 1718) and Muḥarram 1133 (November 1720) we hear of their being used to carry small cannon. Thus Sayyad Ḥusain ʿAlī Khān, when he re-entered Dihlī on his return from the Dakhin, had forty gajnāl elephants, which each carried two soldiers and two pieces, *Jauhar-i-Ṣamṣām*, Fuller’s translation, fol. 50. Again, when ʿAbdullah Khān, Qutb-ul-Mulk, was made prisoner at the battle of Ḥasanpur, a gajnāl elephant was ordered up, and seated on it the prisoner was carried before Muḥammad Shāh (*Jauhar-i-Ṣamṣām*, fol. 158a, and Fuller’s trans., fol. 76).