Most of the Indian weapons in the western World, were either brought back by soldiers whose service had ended, or bought by dealers in very big lots, when the armouries were broken up. The soldiers must have known where they took the weapons, but the information is long forgotten or missing, and the dealers were seldom interested in markings, as their interest was to get the weapons to the western World and sold as soon as possible. The lack of interest in the markings then, is what now give the collectors and museums a lot of problems. We see the marks, but we don’t know what they mean – at least I don’t.
From the way the markings are placed, the katar at the beginning of the blade, sometimes almost under the langet, and the trisula well down the blade in the middle, could mean that they don’t have anything to do with each other, but this is pure guessing.
Has anyone ever seen one of these markings alone, or are they always seen together on blades?
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