Elephant Sword

Unknown

15th–17th century · Iron or steel · Arms and Armor

Elephants were used in warfare in India for approximately a thousand years. In addition to armor, war elephants sometimes were equipped with swords, also called tusk swords, which are pairs of blades specially designed to be attached to their tusks. Although hundreds, possibly thousands of elephant swords may have existed in the past, only four pairs and this single example are known to survive today.

Artist

Unknown

Date

15th–17th century

Medium

Iron or steel

Culture

Indian

Department

Arms and Armor

Credit line

Gift of Jeri Garbaccio, in honor of Donald J. La Rocca, 2015