[Jim McDougall]

Hi Jens,
Just as you have noted, that is the exact course we must follow, and with any luck there may be collectors and readers out there who either hold weapons with like markings or have seen them in references outside those we have. I am unclear as well on whether these deep stamps can only be applied at original forging of blade, or if they can be added later. I know that to some degree stamps can be applied cold, but as you have noted they do not seem as deep.

Thank you for the correction on the scope of armoury marks, and I had forgotten our discussions that included the other two we are aware of, Kishangar and Ulwar....would it be possible to see examples of those. It would be good to have those shown here as well in hopes of response from others that may know or have seen them.

I think it would be well to understand better the terms armoury and arsenal. I am somewhat unclear at the application of the terms. It seems the two terms are used somewhat interchangeably. By dictionary definition, both are described as storage places for weapons and war equipment, however the term 'arsenal' seems to expand more by including in its definition "...a factory for manufacturing military equipment or munitions".

I think it would be helpful to better understand the geo-political structure in historical periods in India during the periods our weapons of study were produced. It would seem of course that some were large cohesive states or provinces while in many regions small kingdom type units were somewhat collectively ruled. Clearly the larger established regions such as noted with Bikaner would have firmly established arsenals, while the smaller kingdoms ( perhaps not the correct term) would rely on either weapons furnished by allied entities or most likely by captured and privately held arms. While the ruler in whichever appropriate capacity may have had a small private armoury, there would probably have not been a firmly established arsenal.

Obviously my historical grasp of India's geo-politics and the structure of its states or provinces is superficial at best, and I would very much appreciate a concise overview, but my point was to establish guidelines for a categoric search for either arsenals or armouries in India. Our goal is of course to see if it would be possible to catalog corresponding markings found on the weapons.

If you could again show those markings from Kishangar and Ulwar, and if possible the Bikaner style markings, we could use those as a base to move forward from here. Also, I have forgotten on the umbrella marking (seen on I think example in Figiel), whether that may fall into the same category as these trisula.

All very best regards,
Jim