View Single Post
Old 29th April 2009, 02:09 PM   #30
rand
Member
 
rand's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Virginia
Posts: 538
Default Sinhala Weapons and Armor

Found another book by the same author of "SOME MEDIEVAL REPRESENTATIONS OF SINHALA WRESTLERS AND GLADIATORS (1937) by P E P Deraniyagala", cept this book is titled "Sinhala Weapons and Armor". He was the director of museums in Ceylon.....

A quote from this book,"The hilt of the sword should have a pommel of lotus petals; the middle part should be decorated and possess auspicious figures as of lions,etc. A circle at the middle of a weapon is inauspicious".

This puts a most intrigueing twist as bad, ill,misfortune,unfavorable are synonems for inauspicious.

The entire book is posted at this site and is fascinating reading:
http://www.pihakaetta.com/sinhala_weapons_armor_low.pdf

rand
rand is offline   Reply With Quote