Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
A few years ago, I posted pictures of a hansia from Nepal/Northern India which fits into this discussion. That thread can be found here. The design is very commonly found as a tool that could be used as a weapon if needed. |
Thank you very much!
The point is that in origin all such items were sickles for agricultural work, as their names suggest.
hansia - sickle
Arival or aruval - sickle
All other names that include "arival" are different types of sickles.
"Val" means "sharp tool" like saw, plough, scissors and of course sickle and sword.
Congavellum = Konga
val (from Egerton). I suppose it was in original "caan val" (Malayalam) or "konam val" (Tamil) - a curved sword.