Alex, thank you for the nice words, and thank you for the pictures, which adds to the size of the puzzle, as this blade had a shamshir hilt and not a tulwar hilt – just have a look at the form of the tang. Should I guess; then this is a shamshir made for a Hindu, due to the stamps, and this makes it a rare piece. To see one of the stamps is rare, but to see both stamps is even rarer. I asked a friend, who has seen more Indian blades than I will ever see. He did not know what the marks mean, but he said that he has seen the trisula about a dozen times, and the katar three to four times.
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