Thread: Tulwar lite
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Old 11th December 2013, 04:59 PM   #9
Jim McDougall
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Location: Route 66
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Archer, good work on locating that earlier thread and the comments by Richard (Pukka Bundook) who provided some great discussions on tulwars.
Actually it is regrettable that little work has ever been done to address the many markings and stamps found on Indian blades, though over the years Jens Nordlund (the 'go to guy' on tulwars ) has made numerous initiations on the topic.

As seen in the previous thread linked, these triangular stamps seem to have to do with issuance or inventory matters associated with post East India Co. British Raj. I believe many of these were probably associated with the paramilitary security and patrol forces often employed by large British commercial estates, firms and other such entities, as I mentioned with the railroad example in the thread.

It is interesting to examine the disparity in weights of blades on these as you have pointed out, and I wonder if perhaps the grade of steel being used on blades was not a factor. In the later years of the Raj, early part of the 20th century, a great deal of industrial grade steel, from railroads and other infrastructural activity was recycled for these purposes if I understand correctly . It seems to me that the volume of older arms that remained in circulation despite the clearing of arsenals etc. is far greater than most of us imagine, and remounting of unserviceable blades was quite regular activity particularly with these ersatz forces.
It seems quite possible that the hilt damage seen here was 'post-storage' as often these arms were stored literally in heaps.

It is important to note that little Indian swordsmanship involved any type of sword to sword combat (shields served for parrying) and as pointed out, lighter blades were certainly favored as 'faster' in controlled slashing cuts. Clearly sword blades were not intended to direct at any sort of armor but of course were indeed effective when armor components became compromised or off entirely.

The hilt form indeed is comparable to the typology which Pant worked to establish, but these rather arbitrarily classified examples remain essentially a benchmark to which further research has revealed certain fallibilities.
It does seem that the form of these hilts is typically associated with Rajasthan and regions extending into the Deccan and which became well known in the Northwest Frontier.
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