Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult (64 page)
Read Thug: The True Story Of India's Murderous Cult Online
Authors: Mike Dash
status of in village communities,
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tattooed and branded,
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technique for murdering a man on horseback,
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&n
training of novices by,
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transfer of loyalties from gang to gang,
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varying methods employed by,
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victims of, as sacrifices,
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women’s work,
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see also
approvers; beles; Megpunnas; Tusma-Baz Thugs
Thugs, River,
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Tranquebar,
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n
transportation,
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see also
Thugs, transportation of
travellers
diet of,
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difficulties experienced by,
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Tuponee,
see
Thugs, rituals of
Three captured Thugs demonstrate their technique for strangling a victim. This study is attributed to the pioneering photographer Felice Beato, and was probably taken at Lucknow in March 1858.
William Sleeman (1788–1856), an East India Company officer, led the British campaign to eradicate Thuggee, developing revolutionary new police techniques to do so.
Murderers in India’s native states could be sentenced to be ‘trodden to death by elephants’. Among those executed in this way were the Thugs Boodhoo and Khumoli, brothers who were put to death at Jhalone in 1814–15.
Four scenes from a typical Thug murder, sketched by an Indian artist at Lucknow in 1837 under the direction of the leaders of several gangs.
Thug inveiglers induce an intended victim to bare his neck by pointing to the stars.
the appointed strangler and his assistants, the handholders, despatch their victim, incongruously depicted here as a European.
members of the gang carry the bodies away for disposal.
Thugs ensure their victims are dead by stabbing them in the eyes prior to hurling their corpses into a well. One strangler explained that this practice was introduced around the year 1810 after the victim of one attack had recovered and escaped. (British Library)