Throughout history, there have been hundreds of execution methods used to administer justice,
or to take the lives of an enemy or someone deemed to be a threat.
During times of war, firing squads were used, and also hangings were used after the Second
World War for example to punish those perpetrators of war crimes.
During the Medieval period, places such as Smithfield saw harrowing burnings at the stake,
where religious criminals would be burned alive suspected of heresy.
But there is one execution method used throughout history, and in particular in Asia that involved
an animal, an animal which is regarded as one of the most majestic creatures in Asia,
and an animal that is the largest living land animal.
The Asian Elephant was used at times to take the lives of humans.
But what is the story of this?
Join us today as we look at ‘Execution by Elephant - History’s Most SHOCKING Execution
Method.’
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Today the Asian Elephant is listed as an endangered animal, and it’s population is declining
due to loss of habitat and poaching.
But rather brutally, in India and other countries in South and Southeast Asia, the creatures
were used to administer justice brutally to criminals.
The Asian Elephant was used to crush, dismember and torture those who were captured, in horrific
public executions.
Many of them had been trained to kill and they were seen as versatile creatures, being
able to kill people instantly, or torture them.
Bizarrely, they were used by royalty, and the elephants symbolised the ruler’s power
and his ability to control animals considered wild, and how he could use them to administer
his will.
Elephants have been a symbol of royal power and still are in some places such as Thailand,
and their power is linked to total command.
But to kill using a creature such as an elephant was seen as brutal and barbaric by those who
would go and witness the proceedings.
One account of an execution by elephant states, ‘For Treason and Murder, the Elephant is
the Executioner.
The condemned Person is made fast to a Stake driven into the Ground for the Purpose, and
the Elephant is brought to view him, and goes twice or thrice round him, and when the Elephant's
Keeper speaks to the monstrous Executioner, he twines his Trunk round the Person and Stake,
and pulling the Stake from the Ground with great Violence, tosses the Man and the Stake
into the Air, and in coming down, receives him on his Teeth, and making him off again,
puts one of his fore Feet on the Carcase, and squeezes it flat.’
Another account from the 1800s states how, ‘A criminal is tied to a stake, and the
royal elephant runs down upon him and crushes him to death.’
Elephants were used as executioners in India for centuries, and this dates back to 200BC.
Elephants were used to kill for a number of offences, including theft.
In 1305, the Sultan of Delphi had his royal prisoners from the Mongols executed by being
crushed to death by them.
It was said during the Mughal era that, ‘it was a common mode of execution to have an
offender trampled underfoot by an elephant,’ and that someone could be ‘carried to the
elephant garden, to be executed by elephant.’
The use of elephants was linked to public entertainment, and many rulers used the creatures
to great amusement.
Elephants could be trained to crush a prisoner, or they could be trained to slice a prisoner
with pointed blades fitted to their tusks.
Another account of an execution using elephants states, ‘Upon a certain day, when I myself
was present, some men were brought out who had been accused of having attempted the life
of the Vizier.
They were ordered, accordingly, to be thrown to the elephants, which had been taught to
cut their victims to pieces.
Their hoofs were cased with sharp iron instruments, and the extremities of these were like knives.
On such occasions the elephant-driver rode upon them: and, when a man was thrown to them,
they would wrap the trunk about him and toss him up, then take him with the teeth and throw
him between their fore feet upon the breast, and do just as the driver should bid them,
and according to the orders of the Emperor.
If the order was to cut him to pieces, the elephant would do so with his irons, and then
throw the pieces among the assembled multitude: but if the order was to leave him, he would
be left lying before the Emperor, until the skin should be taken off, and stuffed with
hay, and the flesh given to the dogs.’
Another account states, ‘The man was a slave, and two days before had murdered his master,
brother to a native chieftain, called Ameer Sahib.
About eleven o'clock the elephant was brought out, with only the driver on his back, surrounded
by natives with bamboos in their hands.
The criminal was placed three yards behind on the ground, his legs tied by three ropes,
which were fastened to a ring on the right hind leg of the animal.
At every step the elephant took, it jerked him forward, and every eight or ten steps
must have dislocated another limb, for they were loose and broken when the elephant had
proceeded five hundred yards.
The man, though covered in mud, showed every sign of life, and seemed to be in the most
excruciating torments.
After having been tortured in this manner for about an hour, he was taken to the outside
of the town, when the elephant, which is instructed for such purposes, was backed, and put his
foot on the head of the criminal.’
The use of elephants continued until the latter part of the 19th century in India, but the
power of the British Empire ended the practice.
It was used in other places such as Shri Lanka, where it was said during one execution, ‘ The
animal was mottled and of enormous size, and was quietly standing there with his keeper
seated upon his neck; the noble who accompanied us desired the man to dismount and stand on
one side.
The chief then gave the word of command, ordering the creature to 'slay the wretch!'
The elephant raised his trunk, and twined it, as if around a human being; the creature
then made motions as if he were depositing the man on the earth before him, then slowly
raised his back foot, placing it alternately upon the spots where the limbs of the sufferer
would have been.
This he continued to do for some minutes; then, as if satisfied that the bones must
be crushed, the elephant raised his trunk high upon his head and stood motionless; the
chief then ordered him to 'complete his work,' and the creature immediately placed one foot,
as if upon the man's abdomen, and the other upon his head, apparently using his entire
strength to crush and terminate the wretch's misery.’
It was used in other continents even, and was noted to have even been used by the Romans
at time, as they used war elephants.
The practice was eventually ended by the European colonial powers that colonised regions, but
seeing one of these executions would have been very traumatic.
Images depict elephants trampling people to death, and also using their tusks to slay
people where they stood.
The execution by elephant however, has to be one of the most shocking, and the strangest
execution methods used throughout history, turning an animal to become a killing machine.
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