The Maharaja's hunting companions reportedly included monarchs, world leaders and captains of industry. They would have had plenty of arms to choose from. The carmaker fitted two gun racks in the rear passenger compartment to hold rifles and shotguns. A howdah gun, a large-caliber, multi-barreled pistol on a swivel mount, would have likely been used to repel animals bent on attacking the car. The name is a holdover from an earlier era, when hunters used elephants rather than automobiles to track down tigers, according to Bonhams' firearms expert James Ferrell. (Because he has not examined the firearms being sold with the car, he could comment only on the general history of these types of guns.) "The howdah is that little compartment on elephants' backs. The hunter would be up there with his rifle, of course, but he'd have some kind of large caliber pistol, so if the tiger came up on the elephant's back to get you, you had your howdah pistol to stop him at the last minute," Ferrell says.