[olikara]

Friends,
Here are some details of the sword Hilt in my possession. I would welcome any new ideas about it's identification, area of origin, etc. I am not much of a photographer and even lesser of an arms collector, so I request you all to bear with me. Here goes...

The hilt seems to be made of brass and is cast in one piece. As can be seen from the photographs it comprises of a tiger's head pommel and a grip for the hand. The inner side of the grip has ribbed double lines across as can be seen in the photographs.

The tiger's head is incised with the typical Tipu bubris incised all over it which extends down to almost one third of the hand grip. The bubris are S shaped and hollow save for a curving line at the centers. The nose of the tiger is dotted and the forehead has the banana plant like bubris pattern with a straight line and 2 bubris on either side. Towards the neck of the tiger is something like a collar (double lined and ribbed).

One end of the knuckle guard is seen leaving the mouth of the tiger at the pommel and reached down to the quillon. There are no bubris to be found on any part of the knuckle guard or the quillon.

We can see one langet only as the other one seems to be broken from what remains of it. There is no design on the langet as well.

I tried looking all over for any inscription but could find none. There is as you can see no blade and I do not know what came of it or how it came to be broken.

Here are the dimensions:

Overall length (pommel-langet) - 14.5 cm.
Lenghth of grip – 7 cm.

Length of knuckle guard – 10 cm.

Length of langet – 3 cm.

Length from quillon end to knuckle guard end – 11 cm.

I picked this piece from the Mysore region of Karnataka, India.

Awaiting all your feedback.