Execution by elephant, or Gunga Rao, was a method of capital punishment in South and Southeast Asia, particularly in India, where Asian elephants were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives during public executions. The animals were trained to kill victims immediately or to torture them slowly over a prolonged period.

2015年12月15日 · On the other hand, execution by elephant was more frequently used in South and Southeast Asia, especially in India. This form of capital punishment is known also as gunga rao, and has been used since the Middle Ages. Unsolved Mystery: Where did Hannibal get his War Elephants?

2017年1月20日 · Sometime between the 5th and 15th centuries AD, the use of elephants took a more sinister turn with the practice of Gunga Rao. Not only was the use of execution by way of elephant a feared and highly effective form of penalty by death, many believe the method was designed to demonstrate the all-encompassing power of the area’s ruling emperor ...

2023年7月28日 · Death by elephant. It sounds like a bizarre and horrific way to go. And it may sound absurd, but death by elephant, also known in India as Gunga Rao, was actually a popular method of execution in Africa and Asia during the Middle Ages. Elephants are easily domesticated and extremely intelligent.

2016年8月14日 · Many times this method was used in order to show that the ruler is even in command of nature. The ruler was thus seen as maintaining a moral and spiritual domination over wild beasts, adding to their authority and mystique among subjects. This form of capital punishment is also known as “Gunga Rao“.

2018年9月18日 · Also known as gunga rao, this form of punishment was mostly used in Asia and India, although there has been some evidence of this method being used in the Western world on rare occasions. Execution by elephant has been a form of capital punishment in India since the Middle Ages. [3]

2021年8月13日 · Gunga Rao involved training elephants to carry out capital punishment for enemy soldiers, which, while still bizarrely cruel, isn't too surprising. Meeting one's end is always a possibility in combat.

2013年10月5日 · Writing in 1914, Eleanor Maddock noted that in Kashmir, since the arrival of Europeans, “many of the old customs are disappearing – and one of these is the dreadful custom of the execution of criminals by an elephant trained for the purpose and which was known by the hereditary name of ‘Gunga Rao’.”

Writing in 1914, Eleanor Maddock noted that in Kashmir, since the arrival of Europeans, "many of the old customs are disappearing—and one of these is the dreadful custom of the execution of criminals by an elephant trained for the purpose and which was …