Elephant swords

Jens Nordlunde · 2nd December 2018, 04:48 PM

These are seldom seen, at least I have only seen them in books, or read about them - like in The Book of the Sword by Richard F. Burton.
Another place where I have found them mentioned is in Athanasius Nikitin description of his travel to India in the 15th century - here is the description.
"The big elephants are mounted by tvelwe men. Each animal has two large probortys and a heavy sword, weighing a kentar (three pouds, about 100 lb.) attached to its tusks, and large iron weights hanging from the trunk."
Somewhere else I read that the war elephants had heavy chains in their trunks.
The attached picture is from the MET accession number 2015.103. Length 61 cm.

2nd December 2018, 04:48 PM	#1
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Elephant swords These are seldom seen, at least I have only seen them in books, or read about them - like in The Book of the Sword by Richard F. Burton. Another place where I have found them mentioned is in Athanasius Nikitin description of his travel to India in the 15th century - here is the description. "The big elephants are mounted by tvelwe men. Each animal has two large probortys and a heavy sword, weighing a kentar (three pouds, about 100 lb.) attached to its tusks, and large iron weights hanging from the trunk." Somewhere else I read that the war elephants had heavy chains in their trunks. The attached picture is from the MET accession number 2015.103. Length 61 cm. Attached Images