Hi Jens,
Thank you very much!!! It feels good to get going again!!
It has been especially inspiring to see the also awakening interest in Indian weapons, which in so many cases have remained considerably underresearched. I think one of the greatest things to have happened in the study of Indian arms in recent times has been the publication by Robert Elgood of his book "Hindu Arms and Ritual", which I continue to be more and more amazed with each time I refer to it. I have always greatly admired his great scholarship and writing, and this book is a treasure chest of information! It seems there is always some bit of key information that turns out to be an important clue in varied other research I am working on even concerning weapons from many other cultural spheres.
I'm glad you mentioned the note on Ibn Battuta, which I had not thought of. This further emphasizes the uncertainty in the period in which these distinctive transversely held daggers originated, and clearly in what regions they may have developed. It would be most interesting to discover a weapon form with such dynamics that may have served as a prototype for these.
These mysteries are what makes Indian weapons so fascinating, and cause us to search deeper into the many untapped resources such as translations of early narrative material as well as closely examining early iconography.
All the best,
Jim