1900s Execution by Elephant
DESCRIPTION
An execution by elephant in India is shown in this excerpted color plate from an early twentieth-century French-language illustrated publication.
A great elephant rears over a kneeling man bound with rope to a wooden block as the animal lifts one forefoot above him in preparation to come down hard on his skull. At left, a handler in a yellow robe and turban raises a hooked goad beneath a carved stone elephant on a pedestal, while crowds fill the stands before a tiered temple at right and spectators in striped turbans watch from the foreground. The plate is printed in color halftone, with the caption "L'Éléphant bourreau dans l'Inde," or "The executioner elephant in India," below.
Execution by Elephant
Execution by elephant was recorded in South and Southeast Asia for centuries, and European travelers from the sixteenth century onward described trained elephants crushing condemned prisoners at a ruler's command. The practice had largely died out by the late nineteenth century, but it remained a favorite subject of European illustrated papers and books, which printed scenes like this one in color for readers eager for exotic spectacle.
CONDITION
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