Pictures 5 & 6 : 17th – 18th century . Persian / Mughal armguard (known as dastana in India or bazouband in Persia) it has a rarely preserved zirah (chainmail) gauntlet.
The central motif is surya (Sun God) very popular in Indo-Persian armor a motif present not only on the plates of armor but bass-relief ornamented on many war shields (sipar or dhal). Mughal decoration (the blend of Hindu and Islamic is easily observed) is executed in true gold damascening or tah-nishana technique (carve and inlay), much superior to the koftgari (scratch and inlay) technique, more widespread.
In a similar manner to the Sun God motif seen here, other deities faces appear on the war maces where horned faces of devils or bulls are preferred but instead of bas-relief projection they are statuesquely carved making up the bulbous (and therefore the dangerous) part of the war mace.
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