Charles that is a spot on assessment of Robert Elgoods "Hindu Arms and Ritual" , and it is indeed 'fresher' because he has taken an approach to 'understanding' these arms rather than simply cataloguing them in arbitrary classifications. As I mentioned, this is far and above that of virtually all writers before him. I believe the reason for this is that other writers in scholarly context have had a certain kind of fear of addressing more subjective aspects of ethnographic weapons.
One of the key figures and early writers in the study of ethnographic arms was Sir Richard Burton ("Book of the Sword" 1885), and is somewhat dismissive on such aspects of ethnographic weapons, noting the efforts of Professor Gustav Oppert ("On the Weapons etc. of the Ancient Hindus", 1880) as rather insufficient. He refers to this perspective as absurdity and that the Hindus attribute everything on weapons to metaphysical and supernatural. I believe this unfortunately narrow minded approach to the study of ethnographic arms in general, not just India, has virtually hamstrung the understanding of them even into modern scholarship..that is until Robert took his innovative stand. His concerns that his book might be too far into such areas has proven quite unfounded, and in my opinion, exactly the perspective in which these arms should be studied.
"Islamic Arms and Armour" (1979) was actually a compendium of papers written by various authors and edited by Robert Elgood. While these are especially useful they are quite esoteric and attend more to general aspects of Islamic arms, with good benchmark and research data for broader research. There is actually little specifically on Indian arms aside from the scientific investigation on decoration in a two page item, interesting but not detailed necessarily in comparison to subsequent material.
For a good overview on metallurgy and some beautifully illustrated Indian tulwars I would get the work by the late Dr. Leo Figiel, "On Damascus Steel" (1991, on Amazon.com).
Thus far in my opinion there has been no effectively accurate classification of tulwar hilts in regional application, but Pant's work does set some valuable precedents and guidelines (research continues).
As has been noted Neil, there have been many significant contributions on these pages over the years, and we would welcome any specific questions greatly. This is exactly what this forum is here for, and specifically posed questions enable us to address the topic accordingly, where the material becomes archived and useful to all including future research.
All the best,
Jim
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