That's an absolutely fascinating read and thank you for sharing such a personal and deeply reflective look into your pata example. The journey from believing it to be a battlefield relic to recognizing it as a more performative or ceremonial piece is something many of us collectors go through, especially with items acquired decades ago when access to research was far more limited.
The idea of the dandpatta use in Mahratta martial traditions is something that really resonates. Those windmill-style techniques you mentioned are still echoed in modern demonstrations of mardani khel, and it makes perfect sense that many of these weapons, especially from the 19th century onward, were crafted for showmanship as much as for combat. The reuse of older blades especially those European trade types, like the ones found on kaskaras is something I’ve noticed as well, particularly on Victorian-period Indian arms where practicality met aesthetic tradition.
Now, the manople what a rabbit hole that is. That one image from the Armería Real, paired with Calvert’s passing mention, has sparked more questions than answers for a long time. Like you said, the term “Moorish” was pretty loosely applied in the 19th century, often used more to evoke an exotic or Islamic connotation than to offer a reliable ethnographic label. The date range of 14th–15th century seems speculative at best especially when there’s no known functional lineage or surviving parallels.
What intrigues me most is the possibility of cross-cultural influence or even parallel development. Could the Spanish example have been a curiosity brought back from colonial expeditions? Or perhaps even an artistic interpretation inspired by Eastern arms? The lack of provenance and its destruction in the 1884 fire sadly leaves us with more myth than material.
As for the broader mystery of the transverse grip, it’s one of those design choices that feels so oddly niche and yet managed to develop in both dagger and sword form in India, and perhaps (if the manople has any truth to it) in other places entirely. Was it just an ergonomic coincidence? Or was there some long-lost transitional form we haven’t unearthed yet?
Anyway, this has been a great dive into a weapon that rarely gets this kind of thoughtful attention. Would love to hear if anyone else has come across any obscure references or illustrations that could shed light on the manople or more broadly, these gauntlet-style weapons.
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