[Jim McDougall]

Thanks for the responses Gonzalo and Simon.

Gonzalo, you note very good courses for research in this, and my knowledge of the routes and history of Alexanders incursions into northern India, Bactria and Central Asia are far from adequate to respond. Most of the representations of these early Indian weapons are iconographical and seen in friezes in a number of temples and architecture in Ajanta, as mentioned, as well as Barabudur, Khiching and on the Begur stone. Of these, the only ones I can claim any familiarity with are Ajanta and Barabadur, and illustrations of the sculptured illustrations are seen in numerous references of Indian art.

As has been mentioned, the accuracy of artistic representations must be in some degree suspect, as it is known in many instances that traditional weapons from periods often out of context sometimes are emplaced. It does seem however, that these architectural and static references, which can usually be fairly accurately dated by scholars, often also seem to carry accurate contemporary representation.

The illustrations in Rawson showing profiles in drawing of the weapons shown in these various iconographic sources are used in a number of later references including Pant ("Indian Arms and Armour") and it seems various other articles and references. Elgood's "Hindu Arms and Ritual" shows good illustrations of a number of the architectural sculpture's.

As with most ancient and very early weaponry, it is unusual for find surviving examples of the actual weapons, while the iconography of course, remains in the remnants of these structures, and often quite intact.

Going to the subject of terminology and descriptions of weapons and thier forms in contemporary sources, it seems that reliance on these resources in the study of them is probably the most confounding of all. Since the problem of semantics, transliteration and often licentious narrative is so often prevalent with these sources, it is very difficult to rely on them to significant degree. It seems that often, contemporary accounts can sometimes be clouded by emotional or heightened perception, and when recounted to subsequent writers, even becoming more distorted or embellished .
The consequence of this is probably of magnitude for a Ph.D study, but for note here only to recognize the problem in relying too much on such material, and to maintain cautious approach in its application.

With the earliest kukris, it is suggested that this style weapon was brought into Nepal by Rajputs, but that if this was the case, the earliest ones would have had Rajput style handles. Since these incursions were of medieval period, and the earliest known kukri example is believed that of 17th century owned by the King of Gorkha, how can we know what type of weapons were used by the medieval Rajputs? We do know of the khanda, which still has representation in Nepal, and is known from the weapons seen in iconography from the south in India, but the kukri remains unclear.

It seems that in trying to study and understand ethnographic weapons, especially in trying to find chronological and geographic trends in thier development is plagued by the same problems in the majority of cases.
The development of the sabre, the origins of the kastane, the flyssa, the kaskara and takouba, the yataghan, the katar, the tulwar, the kampilan etc etc etc. all are matters of ongoing and relatively unresolved discussion. There is profound speculation and often wonderfully plausible and compelling evidence presented throughout weapons literature, but truly, all we can do is to continue the research and responsibly collect and cull through the material to gather the most applicable data.

This is what I see with the observations and material discussed here, and I look forward to the book Simon is working on. It seems that whoever dares to publish material on ay depth on any weapon form will face the scrutiny inevitable in the academic community, so I wish him well. I think than any true scholar however, welcomes supported rebuttal or criticism that will advance the knowledge on the subject. Hopefully that will be the case, rather than arbitrary discounting of work based on subjective or biased opinion rather than supported argument.


All best regards,
Jim