TENT PEGGING - HISTORY

THE HISTORY OF TENT PEGGING

The sport of tent pegging originated in India and, till the post World War II period, remained confined to the Sub-continent. It is now, of course, a popular sport in many parts of the world. There is considerable divergence of opinion, however, on how it all started. Some held that the sport was popular among the Pathan tribes of the North-West Frontier of India, but this is doubtful since the Pathans were not given to eguine sport, their mountains milieu did not lend itself to such pursuits. Even if true, it was not necessarily the origin of the sport. Others opined that a common practice in North Indian skirmishing was to conduct a raid on a sleeping enemy encampment by galloping through the tented lines, lancing at tent-pegs in order to bring the canvas down on the sleeping enemy. A romantic concept, certainly, but not totally convincing, if only because there surely were better ways of exploiting a surprise visitation. Tradition among Indian (as distinct from British-Indian) soldiery is that the practice began as a war-tactic in the days when the elephant held sway on the battlefield. It was the Muslim invaders of India faced with a formidable array of elephantry who first discovered a method of countering this formidable adversary. Aware that the animals pachydermic defence was largely immune to spear and arrow, they decided to take advantage of its weakest point, the forelegs-which, because they support that enormous weight, become anchored if they are lame or injured.

The tactic devised by the invaders was for three or four lancers, riding line-ahead, to charge at an elephant with their lances down aim at the toe nails of the animals and pierce the flesh around it. The last in line, left his lance in the wound, if the charge was successful, the pain caused the animal to remain rooted to the spot.

It was likely that at least one of the lancers would be caught by the elephant’s trunk and dashed to the ground. In order to maintain their morale, therefore, the custom was for the lancers to yell war cries and twirl their lances in panache as they approached their target - and in earlier days of tent pegging competitions, such displays of exuberance were de regueur to gain maximum points.

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