Did Mahouts have any protection?

[Keraunos]

Like Carl I have been pondering on pachyderms, though mainly from a painting perspective as they move to the front of my painting queue.  In particular, as I have been preparing the mahout figures it has struck me that to be perched on the head of an elephant as it marches into battle is a position of some insecurity.  While you are trying to goad your beast forward, all the while being ready with your mallet and spike to whack it if it starts to run amok, you will be attracting the attention of every slinger, archer and javelin man in range.  Life expectancy is probably not great.

On a Seleucid armoured elephant, the fittings for the elaborate head-dress might offer some protection to the legs and lower torso, but even this ain't great.  On other elephants without such kit you are in a very exposed position. 

The question is, did a mahout ever carry a shield?  I have found the paper that Duncan linked in an earlier discussion of Graeco-Bactrian elephants.  From the rather small picture of the medallion with one of their tower carrying elephants, the mahout seems to be without anything except goad and dhoti.  Is there any other pictorial evidence from the period, rather than 19th & 20th century works of imagination?

[DBS]

I have always assumed that they most probably did wear some form of protective equipment in battle, for the reasons you give.  If they did do so, one reason for under-representation in surviving contemporary representations such as coinage might be a sense of "The Other", the exotic.  If we assume that most mahouts have an ethnicity that roughly matches the source of the elephants themselves, whether Indian sub-continent or East Africa, then "civilised" Hellenistic states might want to emphasise the otherness of their pachyderm corps by depicting the mahouts in what they conceive to be appropriate native dress.  I am sure that they would not wear encumbering armour on the march - what would be the point?  Primary concern then is going to be feeding and watering the beast.  One can argue it either way for a parade or other act of ostentation - shiny armour like other members of the army, or a lot of exposed dark skin to proclaim foreign expert?

[Andreas Johansson]

FWIW, Early Modern Indian war elephants are sometimes shown with armoured mahouts. This is the only contemporary example I find on a brief google. (If the man is indeed a mahout, he seems to be carrying lance, bow, and goad!)

Thai war elephants had the mahout at the rear, with a really long goad, which seems like a safer option.

(An illustration from Turnbull's recent Elephants and Gunpowder shows a Burmese elephant with the same arrangement - common SE Asian practice?)

[Duncan Head]

The presumably-Pyrrhic mahout on the Villa Giulia plate looks to have the same armour as the tower crew (hard to be certain, there's a crack running through him) but no shield. I can't think of any classical rendering showing a shield.

[Keraunos]

Thanks.  That is a pity as I have quite a lot of spare theureos and pelta that it would have been nice to use 

[Keraunos]

I wake up this morning to find someone has posted some pictures of his Numidian army, which includes a shield bearing elephant rider!  Mind you, he has substituted a 28mm Numidian cavalryman with shield for the mahout that comes with the 20mm HäT elephant that is being ridden 

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[dwkay57]

When we discussed the Meriotic Kushites back in January, photos were provided of an elephant model (traditional and historic art, not wargames model) which had the mahout with shield and potentially wearing armour. No other crew were depicted on the model.

[Keraunos]

When we discussed the Meriotic Kushites back in January, photos were provided of an elephant model (traditional and historic art, not wargames model) which had the mahout with shield and potentially wearing armour. No other crew were depicted on the model.

Thank you for that reminder.  It had completely passed from my memory.

[Keraunos]

And, I have just spotted on the Newline website that they have an Indian elephant whose mahout has a shield, though I think it may be a conversion as it is on the header photograph strip and I cannot find an individual item that corresponds with it in the store 

[tadamson]

You are very bad people...

I went off and checked through my Indian stuff..

No mahout with shields and the armoured ones ae in siege attacks or similar.

There is a trend for heroes to ride an elephant alone (think super duper heavy cataphract) armed with bow shield, lance sword etc...  These were individuals but could be an impetuous general 

There are also illustrations of a mahout at the back whilst the great hero is on the neck position. These are mostly tiger hunts.

So, shiedless mahouts for the indian style.