Sawing - a type of execution, which, according to a number of sources, took place in Europe during the Roman Empire and in the Middle Ages, especially in Spain, as well as in several Asian countries, primarily in India and China. Gained significant distribution during the struggle with Napoleon’s troops, during the war in Spain in the XIX century. Sentenced to this execution was hung upside down and sawed vertically in the middle of the body, starting from the groin. Since the body was upside down, the executed person’s brain had a constant flow of blood, which, despite heavy blood loss, allowed him to remain conscious for a long time. Despite the mention of this execution in a number of credible sources and historical illustrations, some historians consider this execution a myth [1] ; the majority, recognizing its reality, notes that such an execution was an extremely rare occurrence.
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China
Since the executed body swayed due to the movement of the saw, making it difficult for the executioners to work, medieval China solved this problem by hanging the body in an upright position between two boards firmly fixed between the stakes driven deep into the ground. Two executioners, one on each side of the saw, sawed through a fixed board and the victim beneath it [2] .
Roman Empire
In the Roman Empire, this method of execution was rare, but, as indicated in some sources, was common during the reign of Caligula [3] , when even some members of his family were subjected to it. Sawing, unlike China, was carried out horizontally in the torso region. Caligula allegedly ate while watching this execution and said that observing the suffering of the victims served him as a snack [4] .
India
According to one of the Sikh legends, the guru Tegh Bahadur in 1675 was not beheaded, but was sawn up by order of the Mughal padishah Aurangzeb for refusing to accept Islam; allegedly they began to saw it from the head and periodically stopped, but it is unlikely that this actually happened [5] .
Notes
- ↑ Wolfgang Schild - Die Geschichte der Gerichtsbarkeit, München: Verlag Georg DW Callwey 1980. Lizenz für Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 1997 S. 44 ff.
- ↑ Abbott, G. Execution: A Guide To The Ultimate Penalty , Summersdale Publishers Ltd, 2004. ISBN 1-84024-433-X
- ↑ Suet. Calig. 27: multos [...] medios serra dissecuit - "He cut many people [...] in two with a saw"
- ↑ Scott, GR A History Of Torture , Merchant Book Company Limited, 1995, p. 142. ISBN 1-85958-174-9
- ↑ Bhai Mati Das Ji by Manvir Singh Khalsa