Completely different.

A Howdah pistol vs Sawn off shotguns ...

I doubt any gentlemen hunting on the back of an elephant in India would be seen dead with a "sawn off shotgun".

This wasn't hill billy red neck Apalachian country ... Or Sicily.

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I too think Pedersoli would do well to copy such a real example of a Howdah such as this one, instead of those aweful anominations they pretend are Howdahs.

A commercial compromise for a brass case Howdah, might be a .45/70 chambered howdahpistol of proper design. An original .577 Howdah cartridge might be loaded with a .577 480 gr projectile and 70 grns of BP. So a .45/70 with a 400 to 480 gr projectile with a 70 grn charge of BP or equivalent smokeless, would be well in the neighbourhood. I would buy one pretty quickly if a decent Howdah design was put out at a reasonable price.

I would prefer the real .577 bore though and even the .577 cartridges originally chambered. Is brass for these still available?

I wonder how well a Howdah pistol was regulated? Were they regualted at all? Shooting at a tiger on the back or head of an elephant would not require fine regulation a tall. Regulation is expensive so if not needed to be finely regulated, costs could be kept lower.