[derek]

Maisy,

Thanks for posting the anecdote about the scribe's using the piha! that confirms something I've been told before.

I had an ongoing discussion with the owner of the Serendib Gallery in Colombo several years ago and he echoed what you said verbatim. Here is one of his quotes I saved from our talks:
"The stylus is a 'ULKATUVA' used to train a [scribe] student to write on a palm leaf. Once he is trained he is permitted to use a different type of stylus the 'PANHINDA'." He also said this knife would never be used for fighting.

Let me stop here and say one thing: A piha is not a piha is not a piha. Confused? What I'm saying is that the sub-classifications and uses of the piha from a Sinhalese perspective were many and got quite specific.

Jim, the article you referred to is a PDF on pihaketta.com. The author alludes to many varieties of piha, each with its own specific name based on form, use, and even materials employed. Scribe's piha = Ul Piha; Crystal or green jade grip piha = Gal Mita Piha; curved blade piha = Vak Piha; etc. That article actually does list a piha kaetta as a "chopper" form of the piha.

We use one word for all of them, but they used many (like eskimos use many words for snow).

So it's very safe to assume that the piha you describe (Ul Piha: slender, straight blade, with stylus) would have been only for scribes.

But another form would have been intended for fighting.