The Indian PATA and the mysterious MANOPLE
 

This pata example I acquired over 40 years ago, in circumstances which are somewhat intriguing, but irrelevant. In those days of my collecting, naturally I saw this as a fascinating ancient Indian sword.

Today, it is clear that while it in indeed a 'pata', it is likely a fabrication from Victorian times at best, and likely intended for use in Mahratta festivities and martial arts exhibitions. These demonstrations are using these in pairs and in the windmill style slashing in which they were most typically used in warfare in the 17th-18th centuries by Mahratta warriors. These were apparently termed 'dandpatta' in the Mahrathi language.

While it is known that these pata evolved in Mahratta regions in Central India in about those times, the origins of this form of transverse grip gauntlet sword may be of far earlier antiquity. In iconographic sources as early as 12th century there are ambiguous suggestions of these forms of weapon, as seen on the 'hero' stones (viragal) which are monuments to fallen warriors.

Naturally we cannot look into the 'pata' without considering its dagger counterpart, the katar. These push daggers seem to have evolved likely in the Tamil regions of S. India during Vijayanagara Empire and evidenced to about 14th c., again iconographically.
These examples were of the 'hooded' form which like the pata, had a gauntlet covering the hand over the transverse grip.

Having introduced both these 'gauntlet' transverse grip weapons, in the Museo de la Armeria Real de Madrid (also shown in Calvert "Spanish Arms & Armor" 1907), in a panoply of weapons, there is a bizarre weapon remarkably like the pata, with transverse grip.

It is captioned (#1562) as a MOORISH BOARDING SWORD 14-15TH C MANOPLE"

It must be remembered that in the 19th century, the term Moorish was collectively used to describe Muslims, but most bizarre is where did this weapon actually come from? was the period suggested simply optimistic or with any foundation?

So the image of the MANOPLE, in center of photo is the mysterious weapon. What is worse is this was the only example known of this weapon (it appears in Stone, 1934 with this reference) and any references to it in accounts or literature aside from that noted in Calvert are non existent. Taking it yet another step.....in 1884 a fire in the museum resulted in loss of many holdings, including this single example of the mysterious weapon.

While wanting to open some thoughts and discussion on this MANOPLE conundrum, the pata itself has its own mysteries, in how it was used.
Though regarded originally a Mahratta weapon, which extended into profound use by the Rajputs (one of the most comprehensive collections in Shiva Nivas Palace, Udaipur, Rajasthan), there is some evidence of Mughal use, however it seems these were mostly 'curiosa' with firearm additions to gauntlet.

Returning to my example , the blade, well worn, has the central triple fullers resembling those found on kaskaras, and with the astral symbols (sun, moon etc) and as noted has clearly been sharpened down over many years. The metalwork resembles such work in India in items of Victorian period, thus use of very old blade, European, mounted into a likely traditional ceremonial item.

Possible source for manople term
 

To continue this soliloquy, I recall many years back with Jens as he sought the origins of the katar, and we came across the 'manople' as shown in Calvert (1907), and in Stone (1934). This curious weapon with trident like prongs downturned below the gauntlet was obviously a match to the pata and its shorter counterpart the katar.

However we wondered, how did it fit in? Further the date period 14th-15th century was provocative in the earlier period than commonly associated with katar and pata, yet it is shown as a 'Moorish' boarding weapon.
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The Maratha empire did not officially begin until 1674, so the notions of this weapon being used as a 'boarding weapon' perhaps on the vessels of the Marathas, who had a navy of sorts, in these early times is of course unlikely. Further, the Marathas were not Muslim, thus not Moorish, so on both counts this description is flawed.

The most obvious and glaring perplexity in the description is of course, this strange term MANOPLE, which does not seem to occur anywhere else in arms literature. While notably unusual, I honestly never thought to seek the character of the term further, until now .

Interestingly, by definition, in Spanish, the term 'la manopla' means loosely a glove or mitten ! That fits, so to speak. :)

So it would seem most likely that somehow this curious weapon came into Spanish hands by some means, probably in the 18th century, and writers seeking to classify it, close the eponym 'manople' descriptively, and assumed the early period and use accordingly.

The trident like appendages however were notably unusual for the forms of pata usually seen and it is curious whether this feature actually existed on some examples in earlier periods. We will likely never know, as no other example of this form exists as far as known, and all we have of this one is the telling photo from the Armeria in Madrid.

So theres the update, now the questions remain.......has anyone ever seen a pata with this kind of projecting blades from the gauntlet?
Were patas actually used as weapons on the Maratha vessels? I would note here that the term Maratha is often spelled in older accounts in English, MAHRATTA.

Has anyone ever seen the term 'manople' used in literature in other languages ever been used, particularly of course that in Spanish or Portuguese (I miss Fernando!).