The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c8.78

c8.78

Besides the infantry and the cavalry, the Marquis of Alorna also mentions the employment of war elephants by the Marathas. ‘The elephants’, says he, ‘taught and trained for war are of the greatest value to the Hindus, when they are intrepid and not afraid of noise. Princes, generals and distinguished persons mount them; they are used to attack the enemy carrying different platoons of men armed with bow and arrow. When infuriated they cause great harm with the trunk.’² The Hindu princes in ancient days and their Muhammadan successors kept a large number of fighting elephants but it does not appear that they formed a prominent feature of the Maratha army. Shivaji’s army was certainly not accompanied by these enormous brutes, and we have no proof of their presence in the camp of Sambhaji and Rajaram. Shahu and his principal officers were mounted on stately elephants during their slow and pompous march to Miraj and both Sadashiv Rao and Viswas Rao directed the Maratha operations at Panipat seated on caparisoned elephants. The Marathas wisely refrained from using these beasts for offensive purposes on a large scale, for it is very easy to frighten an elephant with firearms, and more often it proved a source of confusion to its own party. Such a case has been mentioned by Gemelli Careri. ‘The Moghuls resolving to make the last effort to take it,’ (Daman) he says, ‘and having to this purpose placed two hundred elephants in the front with long sharp swords in their trunks, the beasts, frightened with the fire of the Portuguese muskets, ran disorderly upon the Mahomedan army cutting to pieces abundances of men, with the same weapons they were armed to destroy the Christians.’¹