Quote Originally Posted by machinor View Post
I don't think, the current skin is overdecorated. Bear in mind that Indian cataphract elephants would be like a Ferrari or Rolls Royce among Hellenistic monarchs: THE compensation for every shortcoming they might have had. They were like the crown jewels of the army. So one may assume that they were quite decorated to inspire awe in the enemy and to show off with one's treasury.
Precisely.
And that would be also linked to the expression "a white lephant" (as in an expensive, showy but cumbersome nuisance) from the Indian emperors. Likewise, it would be logical to assume that the armoured elephants of the Hellenistic rulers would've been equally expensive and lavish.