{"id":52,"date":"2009-01-02T06:14:20","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T06:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asylumeclectica.com\/grim\/?p=52"},"modified":"2009-01-02T06:14:20","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T06:14:20","slug":"mfdj010109","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour For January 1, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Today&#8217;s Shameful And Terrible Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Elephants were used as executioners of choice in India for many centuries. Hindu and Muslim rulers executed tax evaders, rebels and enemy soldiers alike &#8220;under the feet of elephants.&#8221; Captain Alexander Hamilton, writing in 1727, described how the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan ordered an offending military commander to be carried &#8220;to the Elephant Garden, and there to be executed by an Elephant, which is reckoned to be a shameful and terrible Death.&#8221; Some monarchs also adopted this form of execution for their own entertainment. Another Mughal ruler, the emperor Jahangir, is said to have ordered a huge number of criminals to be crushed for his amusement. The French traveller Fran\u00e7ois Bernier, who witnessed such executions, recorded his appallment at the pleasure that the emperor derived from this cruel punishment. Nor was crushing the only method used by the Mughals&#8217; execution elephants; in the Mughal sultanate of Delhi, elephants were trained to slice prisoners to pieces &#8220;with pointed blades fitted to their tusks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Culled from: Wikipedia<br \/>\nGenerously submitted by: Ben Z.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today&#8217;s Shameful And Terrible Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Elephants were used as executioners of choice in India for many centuries. Hindu and Muslim rulers executed tax evaders, rebels and enemy soldiers alike &#8220;under the feet of elephants.&#8221; Captain Alexander Hamilton, writing in 1727, described how the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan ordered an offending military commander [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}