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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
To me the Nepali hilts look more like 18th century English hanger hilts with langet. The production of such components for use by units in British occupied regions is however supportive of the concept establishef of thier supply to such regions.
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Jim,
All true and carefully considered, as usual.
The Nepali bayonet saw service in the British Army since 1830s: Brunswick rifle, the same one that was given by the Brits to the Nepali troops later on. No doubt there is a lot of local embellishments, and the "lion rampant" on the semicircular langet may be either Nepalese or British. The animal-like head of the D-guard next to the base of the bayonet looks "local" to me. There were many examples of European weapons of a similar construction, but we are talking about a British-dominated area; more than likely it imitated a genuinely British pattern.
The presense of a similar hilt on a sword of Daoud Shah in 1879 shows convincingly that similar handles were present in Afghanistan long before the Mashin Khana. Thus, unless we demonstrate the spuriosness of the Enfield markings, its pattern fits with the Daoud Shah's example.
The only thing I wanted to point out, is that the "regulation pattern" handle of the 1880s-1890s did not spring forth as a sudden invention of the local weapon industry: it was there in one form or another for quite some time and was likely introduced to the area by the British. It mutated into several final forms depending on the locality and timing.