The Importance of being a Mauryan Elephant
The importance of being a Mauryan elephant!
Elephants were a crucial part of the Mauryan war machine.The Mauryan administration had a special department, with a superintendent, exclusively for elephants. The methods for catching, training and looking after them as well as their classification and work have been carefully detailed in the Arthashastra. War elephants were taught to stand in attendance, go around, march together, kill and trample, fight with other elephants and assault towns. Megasthenes’ Indica has also detailed how wild elephants were captured during those times.
How critical were these war elephants in actual fact?
In the fight for supremacy in Asia, Seleucus, one of Alexander’s generals who took over his possessions in India after the latter’s death, came to the land east of the Indus to try conclusions with Chandragupta.
He marched to Kabul in 305 bce after securing Babylon. 2 years went by face to face in battle with the Mauryans but he was not able to secure any advantage.
Meanwhile, there was a growing threat to his Asia Minor kingdom from Antigones, another of Alexander’s erstwhile generals, and his allies, Ptolemy of Egypt and Lysimachus of Thrace (modern Greece) became increasingly restive and worried about this threat in the messy theatre of Eurasian politics.
Finally Seleucus gave up. He concluded a treaty with Chandragupta where he ceded Kandahar, Kabul, Herat and Baluchistan to the Indian King in return for what else but 500 war elephants!
Chandragupta thus extended his empire to the borders of Iran and as for Seleucus he won a decisive victory over Antigones in the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (modern Turkey) in 301 bce! Never again did he look to the east of the Indus. The decisive factor in the departure of the Greeks from India was these elephants.
After this there was a demand for these war elephants from kingdoms in the area. From Pyrrhus of Epirus who took them to Italy in 281 bce to the 2nd Punic War when they were used by the brothers Hannibal and Hasdrubal war elephants often tilted the balance of war!
Elephants were a crucial part of the Mauryan war machine.The Mauryan administration had a special department, with a superintendent, exclusively for elephants. The methods for catching, training and looking after them as well as their classification and work have been carefully detailed in the Arthashastra. War elephants were taught to stand in attendance, go around, march together, kill and trample, fight with other elephants and assault towns. Megasthenes’ Indica has also detailed how wild elephants were captured during those times.
How critical were these war elephants in actual fact?
In the fight for supremacy in Asia, Seleucus, one of Alexander’s generals who took over his possessions in India after the latter’s death, came to the land east of the Indus to try conclusions with Chandragupta.
He marched to Kabul in 305 bce after securing Babylon. 2 years went by face to face in battle with the Mauryans but he was not able to secure any advantage.
Meanwhile, there was a growing threat to his Asia Minor kingdom from Antigones, another of Alexander’s erstwhile generals, and his allies, Ptolemy of Egypt and Lysimachus of Thrace (modern Greece) became increasingly restive and worried about this threat in the messy theatre of Eurasian politics.
Finally Seleucus gave up. He concluded a treaty with Chandragupta where he ceded Kandahar, Kabul, Herat and Baluchistan to the Indian King in return for what else but 500 war elephants!
Chandragupta thus extended his empire to the borders of Iran and as for Seleucus he won a decisive victory over Antigones in the Battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (modern Turkey) in 301 bce! Never again did he look to the east of the Indus. The decisive factor in the departure of the Greeks from India was these elephants.
After this there was a demand for these war elephants from kingdoms in the area. From Pyrrhus of Epirus who took them to Italy in 281 bce to the 2nd Punic War when they were used by the brothers Hannibal and Hasdrubal war elephants often tilted the balance of war!
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The World of Urnabhih
Everything you want to know about the book 'Urnabhih' featuring a spy operating in Chandragupta Maurya's kingdom and the Mauryan period where it is set.
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