The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c16.4

c16.4

In the day of battle elephants were provided with armour, called *pākhar*, *Āīn*, i, 129, N°. 21. This was made of steel and consisted of separate pieces for the head and trunk. In one place, *Aḥwāl-i-khawāqīn*, 2186, I find the epithet *bargustuwān-posh* applied to armour-clad elephants. Again Ghulām ʿAlī Khān, *Muqaddamah*, 34*b*, applies the word *kājim* to elephant armour in general, and defines *bargustuwān*, as a protective covering adjusted on the trunk of an elephant when going into battle. The rest of the complicated gear used in connection with elephants is set out in detail in the *Āīn*, i, 125—130. Besides their own armour, the riding elephants carried on the day of battle an armour-plated, canopied seat, called an *ʿimārī*, of which the sides were some three feet high. The prince or noble took his seat in this, and was thus protected with the exception of his head and shoulders from all distant attack (*Mirāt-ul-Iṣṭilāḥ*, 207*b*). We are told by Haji Mustapha, *Seir*, ii, 301, note 140, that the *ʿimārī* and the *haudah* (or *Haudaj*) “are different, the former has a canopy and is used for travelling or for purposes of state, the latter has no cover and is employed in war”. Or again, in other places, i, 33, note 41, and i, 337, note 283, he says the *haudah* is made of boards strengthened with iron, having the shape of an octagonal platform, with sides eighteen inches high. In war time the sides were raised to two feet, and were then covered with iron or brass plates. It was divided into two unequal parts; in the forepart, about three fourths of it, a man may easily sit with his pillows and cushions, or upon a stretch, two men. The hind part held one man, and that with difficulty. He adds that when “covered with a canopy it is called an *amhari* and is not used in the field”. This last statement cannot be accepted, as all the historians speak of the seat used in war as an *ʿimārī*, عماری. Moor, “Narrative”, in his glossary under Amhara says that a seat with a canopy was so called, and without a canopy it was a *haudah*. “It (the canopy) is generally made of Europe scarlet cloth and embroidered, and sometimes has a golden or silver urn or some such ornament on the top. Mahomedans prefer a crescent”.