- Item: Elephants in the Army: a research paper in progress.
- East Kingdom Wiki Link: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/wiki/Marguerite_Ingen_Lachlainn
I stumbled across a reel from blogger John Rossi who was drumming with an elephant named Emily at the Buttonwood Park Zoo . He had the drum on the ground and was playing with drumsticks. When he took a pause Emily wove her trunk through the wires separating them and drummed on the face of the drum in response. But it was the write up attached to the reel that caught my attention. “Why does Emily like drumming? Elephants can “hear” with their feet. They are specialists in seismic communication, relying upon sound waves that travel within the surface of the ground instead of through the air. “ At this moment I sat up straight. That was a fact I did not know about elephants, that elephants could “hear” with their feet. I suddenly recalled every Sangam era poem I had read about elephants or drums in battle, and wondered if the elephant handlers, trainers, manhouts in Iron Age India somehow knew about that seismic connection, and then used that knowledge to their advantage in war. This paper is an attempt for me to answer that question.
While working on this paper I was elevated to the Order of the Laurel and later that year elevated to the Order of Defense, and I am also serving as Their Majesty’s Chief of Staff, so unfortunately this paper is still a work in progress. I hope to get to work on it again next year.
Link to Paper: Elephants in the Army: Drums and Battle in the Sangam Era
Thank you for sharing the story of your inspiration and how you made the connection of present to the past! Good luck completing your research paper!
I enjoyed learning about the elephants “hearing” with their feet. How neat. Thank you for sharing and best of luck!
I had no idea they had seismic sensory organs or that they listen with their trunks, too. I feel quite sure that if a trainer spent a significant amount of time with their elephants they must notice some indication of that ability… But of course, that doesn’t mean they wrote it down, does it? I hope you find the evidence you’re seeking!