...but judgement here may have been rendered a bit too swiftly, certainly for a confident 'false' rating. As Trautmann, Elephants and Kings (2015) - by far, I'd argue, the source to be relied on on this topic - notes, there is evidence for giving elephants some sort of...
-
-
Näytä tämä ketju
-
...concoction before battle in India as well. The issue here is musth, something oddly left unmentioned in the article, because it is central here. Adult male elephants enter a state called musth once a year where they are more focused on mating but also MUCH more aggressive.
Näytä tämä ketju -
Musth is an easily observable state because elephants discharge temporin from ducts on either side of their head during musth - you can *see* if an elephant is in this state. Trautmann (2015) compiles quite a few examples where these secretions...
Näytä tämä ketju -
...are associated with war elephants in an ideal state for battle; the aggression was prized even though it made the elephants extremely difficult to handle. It is thus little surprise that there is evidence for the use of diet, training and even intoxication...
Näytä tämä ketju -
...to try to induce this state (as an aside, 'musth' itself derives from an Urdu word meaning 'drunk' so the association with intoxication is in the etymology). So I suppose here I find the possibility of efforts to induce musth chemically at least plausible...
Näytä tämä ketju -
...and it fits with an apparent stated preference in Indian armies to attack with elephants in musth when possible. What I do not think we know is if any of these concoctions actually worked to induce musth, though given that the state is visible, maybe?
Näytä tämä ketju -
In any event, this is a claim that I think I'd move from 'False' to at least the
shrug-emoji of 'we don't really know.' I get the impression of implausibility, but there does seem to be evidence for similar practices in India.https://www.badancient.com/claims/drunk-war-elephants/ …Näytä tämä ketju -
All of this, I should note, is from T. Trautmann, Elephants and Kings (2015). You can read my broader thoughts on the purpose and social place of war elephants here:https://acoup.blog/2019/07/26/collections-war-elephants-part-i-battle-pachyderms/ …
Näytä tämä ketju
Keskustelun loppu
Uusi keskustelu -
-
-
I didn't write or edit this article, and it's well beyond my specialty, but a few thoughts: 1. The article references actual Indian training manuals that make no reference to the intoxication of elephants. Is there any evidence to explain why they would make no mention of this?
-
2. With regard to the ratings - it can be tricky to settle on one, but the problem is that you can give up a lot by suggesting that there is a possibility that something happened even if there is no real evidence for it. Perhaps less so in this case, but generally.
- Näytä vastaukset
Uusi keskustelu -
Lataaminen näyttää kestävän hetken.
Twitter saattaa olla ruuhkautunut tai ongelma on muuten hetkellinen. Yritä uudelleen tai käy Twitterin tilasivulla saadaksesi lisätietoja.