The author's bronze sculpture "Rhinoceros"

There is an ancient legend about how the rhinoceros got its "shell". A long time ago, God Krishna decided to replace the elephant as a fighting unit with a rhinoceros, because the mahouts were too easy a target for enemy archers. The warriors caught a rhinoceros, put it in a shell and began to teach it. But when the rhinoceros was brought to Krishna, he saw that the rhinoceros was too wayward and would never learn to obey orders, and ordered the rhinoceros to be released. They let him out into the forest, but they forgot to take off his shell. This is how rhinoceroses still wear their ancestor's combat outfit.

In ancient India, some rulers actually used rhinos in battles instead of "tanks". An iron trident was put on their horn, which required a certain amount of training.