Pickaxes of the Thuggee

[kronckew]

Found essentially no reference to thuggee picks, except one photo.
There were references to their weapons being the strangling cloth, for ritual murders. They carried katars for personal defence weapons. They were taught to murder by strangling as a murder that shed blood required the death penalty, but one that didn't shed blood only required non-lethal punishments.

[Gavin Nugent]

It's been over a decade since I read this title, and it was a very fascinating read.

Within, and given how long it has been, but I don't recall any weapon used or implied... if the title can be found on google books or Jstor or similar, you may be able to do a word search within... would be a quicker way to obtain key information.

Gavin

[kronckew]

We can read it at Project Gutenberg:


Thug Or a million murders <-link


Didn't note in it any weapons mentioned for their murders, tho it noted in one place that in a group of 40 thugs, only three people carried a sword or dagger, they used a cloth sash for killing their victims.

[Interested Party]

Also, elbows to left side of the body to break the short ribs and push them into the spleen may have been a method. It apparently is a very effective in a crowd. The victim doesn't die immediately but lingers for several days as they bleed internally, and it is hard to see who the assassin is. This tidbit was related to me by an internalist who was trying to convince me to go to the hospital after I broke a bunch of ribs.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you so much guys! Gav, I really appreciate you sharing that title and the photo! You have always been a fantastic book sleuth and the titles you have found in building your library always amazed me!

It has been many years since I did this research, and what I had found on the axes was that these were not at all used in murdering victims but actually ceremonially used the burial of the victims. It seems these 'thuggee' were nominally religious, and supposedly factored in the Hindu Faith and worship of the Goddess Kali. Actually they typically disguised themselves in accord with the contexts they were in, feigning various Faiths, but the element of their practices with religious ceremony and Kali created the situation with axes.

In some of the apocrypha on the thuggee, it was said that they made a pickaxe which was done ceremonially following dogma oriented steps, which involved blessings of the tool, painting of symbolic red dots etc.
These were used for the burial process, and having to do with the victim supposedly having been a ritual sacrifice.

Naturally these ritualistic 'followers' of Kali, seem to have been overshadowed in many cases by common 'dacoits' (=bandits) who were simply highwaymen who seem to have been factored collectively into this designation, or perhaps self styled themselves into the collective identity of thuggee..........that is 'posers'.

It has been said, as I recall, that no examples of the thuggee axe have ever been found, and that these individuals disposed on them in much the same ceremony as with which they were made.

It would seem that the film "Gunga Din" had this 'legend' of the 'thuggee' as its main plot, and perhaps the material was from the Sleeman book?

I found a book titled "Thug: The True Sory of Indias Murderous Cult" by Mike Dash , 2005 as well.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by kronckew

We can read it at Project Gutenberg:

Thug Or a million murders <-link

Didn't note in it any weapons mentioned for their murders, tho it noted in one place that in a group of 40 thugs, only three people carried a sword or dagger, they used a cloth sash for killing their victims.

From the source cited by Wayne (Bhowani is another name for Kali):

In former times the Thugs declared that their goddess, Bhowani, relieved them of the trouble of burying their victims by devouring them herself; but, in order that they might not see her doing this—a nicety not quite in keeping with her legendary character—she had strictly enjoined them never to look back on leaving the scene of a murder. On one occasion, however, a novice of the fraternity disobeyed this rule, and, imitating Lot's wife, looked back and saw the goddess in the act of feasting upon a corpse, which embarrassed her exceedingly, and as a punishment she declared that she would no longer devour those whom the Thugs killed. This was a great blow and they appealed to her mercy, with the result that she graciously consented to present them with one of her teeth for a pick-axe, with which she ordered them in future to bury those whom they destroyed.

This was the legendary introduction of the sacred kodalee, which became the chief part of the ritual which preceded every Thuggee expedition. In shape like an adze, five pounds in weight and seven inches in length, it had one point, and was consecrated with special devotion, after which it was called a kussee and given into the charge of the shrewdest and keenest Thug of the gang. Its wooden handle was thrown away the moment its use was ended, in order that the axe could be carried in the waistbelt without being seen or creating suspicion. During a Thuggee expedition the pick-axe was buried at nightfall in a secure place, with its point facing the way the Thugs intended to go next day, and they believed that, if another place would give them better sport, the direction of the point would be found changed in the morning. Formerly this kussee was thrown into a well at night, and the Thugs firmly believed that it came up without human help when summoned on the following morning. Ridiculous as this sounds, Sleeman was often told with every evidence of sincere belief that they had seen the sacred pick-axe rise from a well of its own accord and come to the hand of its custodian. Some, indeed, stated that they had seen several pick-axes of different gangs rise from the same well simultaneously and go to their respective bearers! They further believed that the sound made by the kussee in digging graves Was never heard by anyone but a Thug: that it was more sacred than even Ganges water or the Koran: and that a Thug perjuring himself by taking a false oath upon it died within six days.

Over seventy years later the grandson of Sir William Sleeman conducted tests in India which resulted in the introduction to the British Army of the entrenching tool carried by troops during the Great War. By a curious coincidence, and unknown to him at the time, this tool was almost identical in character with the kussee of the Thug, and while the latter had helped in the murder of countless thousands of people, the former saved innumerable lives.

[kronckew]

Yes, the 'sacred' pick-axe was for burying the dead, but not used to kill them, as was implied by the film referenced in the earlier post.