The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c16.5

c16.5

The object of mounting the general or commander on an elephant was that he might be seen from a distance by all the troops. For in those days battles were nearly always decided by the fate of the leader. If he was killed or disappeared, the army gave up the contest and in a very short space of time melted away altogether. Nādir Shāh wondered at this Indian habit of mounting the general on an elephant: “What strange practice is this that the rulers of Hind have adopted? In the day of battle they ride on an elephant, and make themselves into a target for everybody! (*Malāḥat-i-maqāl* of Rāo Dalpat Singh, fol. 54*b*). The criticism seems to have been taken to heart. For Miskīn, fol. 43*a*, tells us that Mu‘īn-ul-mulk, governor of Lāhor (1748—1754), declared that a general on an elephant was like a prisoner in the midst of his guards, and a mere target for the enemy. The next time that he fought Aḥmad, Durrānī, he meant to ride a horse. In other ways, too, the elephants were sometimes of more harm than benefit. If wounded, they were liable to get beyond control and escape at the top of their speed. In one instance, in a battle near Lāhor in 1124 H. (March 1712), a wounded elephant rushed off with ‘Azīm-ush-shān, son of Bahādur Shāh, and jumping off the high bank into the river Rāvi drowned himself, and the wounded prince along with him.