The elephant and imperial continuities in North India, 1200–1600CE

Abstract

This paper builds on my earlier study of the relationship between the elephant and imperial sovereignty in north India, extending the argument from 1200 to 1600ce. The ritual and military use of the elephant signalled a self-conscious imperial formation, based on the Ghaznavid model, with the emperor as king-of-kings and elephant-master, ruling over subjugated tributary monarchs. However, new conditions in the sixteenth century led to the rise of a centralised and expansive state, now armed with gunpowder weapons, and thus no longer dependent on tributary relations or the elephant. The elephant, which formerly stood for divine or satanic power, was now humanised, and the emperor’s status was elevated above it as the closest living being to God. In short, studying the imperial formation in the north through its use of elephants renders meaningless the characterisation of linear evolution from a more orthodox Islamic state (‘Delhi Sultanate’) to a tolerant one (‘Mughal Empire’).