Sword: O.18-1879

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

• Sword
• Indian weapons
• khanda

Categories

• Weapons

Description

The steel blade is straight and double edged, with an almost rounded point. At the forte are heavy, long reinforces attached by three rivets with petalled iron washers, with cusped lotus bud terminals and bands of incised meander with a vermillion enamel ground at the edges. The hilt, of old Hindu basket form, comprises a figure-8 guard with cusps at the waist, angled across the centre, short quillons with rounded terminals and langets with lotus bud terminals. The guard is extended into a wide plain knucklebow. The grip is of baluster form, and the pommel broad, almost flat dish inside which is a small dome with a four petalled washer and a short curved spike finial, ending in a flower bud. The hilt and blade are polished bright and pitted from earlier corrosion. There are brazed repairs on the knucklebow

Legal notes

Given by Robert Taylor, MA

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1879) by Taylor, Robert, MA

Dating

17th Century#
Circa 1600 CE - 1700 CE

Note

Difficult to tell whether this is a 16th-century khanda blade and reinforces with a later hilt fitted, or all of a period. X-ray of the hilt might reveal this; although it has early and later features, it all appears superficially homogeneous