10/7/2014

Military History of India: Camels in Indian Warfare

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Military History of India

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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Camels in Indian Warfare

Camel mounted units of the Indian Army (13 and 17 Grenadiers) carried
out cross-border raids and captured Pakistani territory along the
international border in Rajasthan during the 1965 and 1971 wars. The 13
Grenadiers were the Bikaner and Jaisalmer Princely States' contribution to
the Indian Army, and further traced their ancestry to the medieval armies
of those Rajput States which had been using camels in warfare for
centuries. The above miniature painting portrays a medieval Rajput camel
rider bearing arms like the bow and arrow, as well as sword and shield on
his camel, which is accoutered in traditional gorbandh and has a doubleseated saddle.
In the ancient Vedic texts of India the Sanskrit word for camels is ushtra,
which over the centuries evolved into uttra (Prakrit) and unta
(Apabhramsa). Camel bone remains have been found in the Bronze Age
civilization spread across the plains from the Sindhu to the Saraswati
River in North India. Daimabad in Maharashtra has a camel depicted on a
pottery fragment from the chalcolithic Jorwe culture (1300 BCE).
The Markandeya Purana says that the camel is born out of the feet of
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Military History of India: Camels in Indian Warfare

Brahma and the only God with a camel as his mount is Virupaksha. The
Goraksha Samhita says that Goddess Kalakarni has a camel as her vehicle,
and Hemadari assigns a camel mount to Vikata Gauri. This latter Goddess
has been mentioned in the Harsanatha temple at Sikar (Rajasthan) built
by the Chauhan Vigraharaja II (973 CE). In later times Ustravahini Devi or
Unta Devi, is the family deity (Kula Devi) of the Pushkarna Brahmins.
Images of Unta Devi are also found in Orissa. The Goddess Mahamaya,
Kula Devi of the Jadeja Rajputs who ruled Kutch for centuries, also has a
camel as her mount.
Camel cavalry and artillery

A Rajput miniature painting depicts camels with mounted lancers in the

background of a hunting scene. A depiction of camels in warfare occurs at
Nadol (South Rajasthan) where a memorial tablet shows a camel-rider
with sword (1673 CE). A 9th century Pratihara panel from Mandor (West
Rajasthan) shows a cart drawn by a camel, and a force of camels formed
part of the Pratihara army. Sculptural representations of the camel are
found in the Rajasthani temples of Merta, Kiradu, Badoli, Chittor, and
Eklingaji. Camels in the Dhola-Maru romance theme are represented in
many other temples and forts across Rajasthan.
From the ancient period, a camel rider is depicted in one of the friezes of
the Sanchi stupa (Sunga period). Panini in Ashtadhyayi calls camel riders
Ushtra-sadi, while mule and camel corps in ancient Indian armies were
called Ushtra-Vami and used for transport. It becomes apparent that
camels generally were used for transport, but in the regions where they
were bred, particularly Rajasthan, camel cavalry was known from early
times.
Both horses and camels have to be trained extensively before they can be
used in battle. Camels can bear greater loads than horses, are much
hardier, cover long distances without water, and can be as fast. Camels
of the Jaisalmer breed are trained to race and can cover 100 miles in a
single night. But in general camels are considered less intelligent and
cannot do certain vital tasks. For example, a well-trained horse will
charge and trample over infantry, disregarding sword cuts, spear thrusts,
and flights of arrows, but a camel will not. Horses were trained to stand
firmly before artillery fire and charge into armies wielding firearms, while
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Military History of India: Camels in Indian Warfare

camels would shy away even from distant fire.

Horses are also easier to group together into formations. The Rajputs
prized horses above all, particularly when their utility became apparent in
resisting the Turk invaders. However a Rajput warrior from the 14th
century, named Pabuji Rathod, is worshiped as a deity by rural Rajputs,
camel herders, and shepherds; he was said to have made improvements in
the use of camels, protected cows, and to have slain in battle the Muslim
governor of Patan (Gujarat). Pabuji's story reflects the growing power of
the Rathod clan in Western India during the late 14th century when the
Delhi Sultanate had fragmented and the Rathods had formed a large
independent Hindu Kingdom in Marwar.

The development of firearms gave a boost to the deployment of camels in

warfare. With their ability to bear loads, camels in addition provided an
elevated and mobile platform for delivering artillery fire. A kind of swivelgun shown above was first used in Asian armies and was alternatively
called zamburak or shutarnal (shutar is the Persian term for camel derived
from the Avestan and Sanskrit Ushtra). When firing, the camels were
made to kneel and their legs were tied together. These served as a kind
of mobile light artillery till the early decades of the 19th century when
horse-drawn galloper guns, with greater range and firepower, came into
use.
In the Kingdoms of Rajasthan and Gujarat, camel mounted troops
continued to be used for patrolling and policing down to the 20th century,
and each state maintained camel breeding herds (tolas). The most famous
of the active war camel units was the Bikaner Camel Corps, named the
Ganga Risala, after Maharaja Ganga Singh who was its founder. Rajasthani
camels were utilized for transport service in the 19th century Sindh and
Afghan campaigns of the British.
Camel breeds and the camel trade

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Military History of India: Camels in Indian Warfare

An illustrated folio of the Akbarnamah depicting the 16th century Mughal

siege of Champaner in Gujarat. The two camels are probably the twinhumped Bactrian breed and are carrying naggada beaters. Such foreign
breeds were less resistant to heat and Indian camel breeds from
Baluchistan westwards began to be used by Mughal armies primarily for
transport. Baloch camel traders are shown as forming the long tail of
Aurangzeb's army that caused so much devastation in the Deccan Wars
late in the 17th Century. Jadunath Sarkar wrote in his History of
Aurangzib: "The worst oppressors of the peasants, however, were the tail
of the army......Particularly the Beluchi camel-owners who hired out their
animals to the army, and unattached Afghans searching for employment,
plundered and beat the country people most mercilessly."
Across many parts of India, particularly the west and northwest, and in
the interiors of the peninsula, the dry conditions make the use of camels
for transport and as fast couriers essential. Such conditions worsen in the
countries on India's western borders, and camels were the only means to
carry the annual burden of the extensive medieval trade to and from
India; until the European domination of the sea trade ended the
importance of those land routes. While different breeds of Indian and
foreign camels were traded and utilized in the armies of Indian Kingdoms,
the purity and distinct characteristics of Indian breeds were maintained at
least in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

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Military History of India: Camels in Indian Warfare

Camels of the Mewar breed are noted for their ability to carry loads
across the hilly terrain. In this miniature painting Mewari camels bear
Rajput nobles out on a hunt in the forested Aravalli range. In the past
camels were bred in many states, but today the National Research Center
on Camel recognizes four distinct breeds: Bikaneri, Jaisalmeri, Kutchi, and
Mewari. Camels of the Marwar breed were considered distinct in the past
and the state of Jodhpur had camel sowars in its army, but today
northern Marwar is included in the breeding ground of the Bikaneri breed
while camels bred in southern Marwar are considered part of the Jaisalmeri
breed.
One unique facet of camel breeding in India is that communities
associated with this task, like the Raika and Rabari, do not eat its flesh
which is common for camel pastorals in other parts of the world. Camel
meat in general is not acceptable to most other communities in Rajasthan
and Gujarat. The Raika grooms come seated on a camel for their
weddings, and the community has accumulated a vast pool of knowledge
on camel characteristics, training, and disease treatment. Camels are
used for ploughing and drawing water in Jaisalmer, and camel products like
milk, hair, bones, intestine, and leather, are an important part of the local
economy. Camel grazing is also more environmentally friendly than in other
livestock.
Posted by Airavat at 8:51 AM
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