Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

sirupate · 20th March 2005, 01:03 PM

Hello Mike,

Thats a nice old Sirupate from Eastern Nepal and definatley not of the Hanshee type.
Probably the reason why the Kopis (first came about around 500BC and was made of iron) is often associated with the kukri, is that the there is a theory that when Alexander the Great defeated the the Indians in Punjab (then Northern India) at the battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC, the Indians took the design from the Kopis that many of the Macedonian/Greek cavalry and Hoplites used in that period.
Also many mercenarie troops for the Greeks used the Kopis as well, such as the Dii tribesman (modern Bulgaria) and the Etruscians (N.Italy, whose alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, due to the heavy Greek colanisation of that area). Another possible name for the Kopis that you might hear of is the Machaira, which in Greek refers to Knife types where as the the word Kopis (pronounced Gopis) refers to clever type weapons and is a more acurate termonolgy.
Spiral that is a nice Villager from Nepal and very well made with a good weight

I completly agree with your comments about getting correctley made Modern kukri from Nepal, unlike the ones below which are pretty much spot on;

As you say, most of the suppliers have incorrect weight proportions to the Kukri, suffer from cho creep and as you say have very thick spines without the any of the tapering ETC which would give the kukri the correct balance and so on

Cheers Simon

20th March 2005, 01:03 PM	#16
sirupate Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: England Posts: 373	Hello Mike, Thats a nice old Sirupate from Eastern Nepal and definatley not of the Hanshee type. Probably the reason why the Kopis (first came about around 500BC and was made of iron) is often associated with the kukri, is that the there is a theory that when Alexander the Great defeated the the Indians in Punjab (then Northern India) at the battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC, the Indians took the design from the Kopis that many of the Macedonian/Greek cavalry and Hoplites used in that period. Also many mercenarie troops for the Greeks used the Kopis as well, such as the Dii tribesman (modern Bulgaria) and the Etruscians (N.Italy, whose alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet, due to the heavy Greek colanisation of that area). Another possible name for the Kopis that you might hear of is the Machaira, which in Greek refers to Knife types where as the the word Kopis (pronounced Gopis) refers to clever type weapons and is a more acurate termonolgy. Spiral that is a nice Villager from Nepal and very well made with a good weight I completly agree with your comments about getting correctley made Modern kukri from Nepal, unlike the ones below which are pretty much spot on; As you say, most of the suppliers have incorrect weight proportions to the Kukri, suffer from cho creep and as you say have very thick spines without the any of the tapering ETC which would give the kukri the correct balance and so on Cheers Simon Last edited by sirupate; 20th March 2005 at 01:34 PM.