War Elephants of the Hindu Kings

The first time Western military forces crossed with war elephants was during the time of Alexander the Great at the battle of Hydaspes in which their advantages and disadvantages were very apparent. Soldiers who had never experienced war elephants were terrified by them, but more disciplined and versatile forces could drive them into panic making them dangerous to both sides. 

War Elephants were very important to Indian military systems in the centuries before Alexander's invasion, where both tactics for using them, and methods of countering were developed. The Indian's had developed bamboo long bows which very extremely powerful, and a small barrage of them could easily wipe out several war elephants. At the same time elephants are smarter than horses of conventional cavalry. So elephants could actually be trained in combat similar to soldiers.

After Alexander the Great the Gupta Empire exchanged war elephants with Alexander's Successors for land in modern day Pakistan. These elephants and their offspring became used all over the Mediterranean  in many different military systems.