An interesting khanda Steve, and these kinds of composite working life weapons are intriguing as the history behind these refurbishings often can have interesting stories. Obviously a quite old Rajput basket hilt in my opinion, and the blade as noted most curious.
To clarify, the term 'firangi' is just that, a colloquial term used to describe various Indian swords mounted with European or 'foreign' blades. While the term has become strongly permeated into the vernacular to describe these Hindu basket hilts, it is not technically a sword type. To me the term is very much parallel to 'scimitar' as far as in descriptive use for a type of sword.
I dont believe this is a European blade, but clearly it has experienced some dramatic events, the shortening and remounting notwithstanding.
Runjeet, interesting detail on the political ramifications possible for sword compromising for purposes of heirloom or keepsake purposes. Is this bending or folding of blades a matter of fact, or hypothetical? I know that swords held in armouries or arsenals were often dismantled and hilts and blades kept separate, apparantly to prevent ready arming of insurgents in times of unrest and volatility, not unusual in many periods and regions.
The idea of deliberately damaging, or 'killing' a sword by severely bending the blade came from Middle Ages Europe when these weapons were buried with warriors, and they had to be rendered 'dead' to go with them to the next world. I had not heard of any such ritual with Indian swords...however, it is known that with Rajputs there was a degree of sword worship much as had descended from the Scythian tribes.
The damage to this blade does seem deliberate as it seems strategic rather than accidental, so it is interesting to consider why. The shortening of the blade seems unusual also as these khanda were heavier slashing weapons favoring blades with long reach.
There may be the possibility of naval use with Mahrattas or perhaps even more remotely possible, pirates who plied waters in regions of the Malabar trade.
The Islamic cartouche is inscribed in imitation of those on higher end blades and added later, probably at the time this blade was refurbished and mounted. This may have been of course by an illiterate workman who tried to copy these type cartouches, but would be hard to translate as it is not necessarily accurately transcribed.
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