Animals in the Quran Series: ELEPHANTS

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

An elephant Ivory carved into an elephant

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

software:Protoscape

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

War elephants

A war elephant is an elephant trained and guided by humans for combat. The beasts were significant, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. Their main use was in charges, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks. They were probably first employed in India, where the elephant corps served as one of the four classical wings of the Indian Army.

In the Hellenistic period of Greece, they were also used by the Diadochi to protect against cavalry attack. Their most famous use in the West was by the warlord Pyrrhus and in great numbers by the armies of Carthage. In the Mediterranean, improved tactics reduced the value of the elephant in battle while their availability also decreased. In India it was the cannon that finally brought the use of the combat elephant to an end, limiting them thereafter to engineering and labour roles.

It is commonly thought that all war elephants were male because of males' greater aggression, but this was not always true.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

* 'elephants never forget'
refers literally to elephants
supposedly having an excellent memory.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

* white elephant
refers to an expensive burden,
particularly to a situation
in which much has been invested
with false expectations.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Religion and philosophy

* The scattered skulls of prehistoric pygmy elephants on Crete, featuring a single large nasal cavity at the front, may have formed the basis of belief in existence of cyclops, the one-eyed giants featured in Homer's Odyssey.
* A white elephant is considered holy in Thailand.
* Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom, has an elephant's head.
* Elephants are used in festivals in Sri Lanka, such as the Esala Perahera.
* Temple elephant
* Guruvayur Keshavan famous temple elephant in Kerala, India
* The story of the Blind Men and an Elephant was written to show how reality may be viewed by different perspectives. Its source is unknown, but it appears to have originated in India. It has been attributed to Buddhists, Hindus, Jainists, and Sufis, and was also used by Discordians.
* In Judeo-Christian accounts, including Midrash on the sixth chapter of the apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees, the youngest of the Hasmonean brothers, Eleazar the Maccabee stuck a spear under the foot of an elephant carrying an important Greek-Assyrian general, killing the elephant, the general, and Eleazar.