elephants were used as executioners of choice in india for many centuries. hindu and muslim rulers executed tax evaders, rebels and enemy soldiers alike "under the feet of elephants". the hindu "manu smriti" or laws of manu, written down around ad 200, prescribed execution by elephants for a number of offences. if property was stolen, for instance, "the king should have any thieves caught in connection with its disappearance executed by an elephant." for example, in 1305, the sultan of delhi turned the deaths of mongol prisoners into public entertainment by having them crushed by elephants.