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Originally Posted by Miguel
Hello Jim,
Thank you for the very interesting info on the Wilkinson Sword Co but I think your first reply had the answers. Ibrahim provide a link showing Dungapuri hilts which you had referred to and I have at last found a sword with a blade having the same shape and disposition of fullers as on the Tulwar 
Unfortunately I do not have the dimensions of this sword which is a circa 1730 / 1740 Austrian sabre for Grenadiers of Cuirassier and Dragoon regiments This is not to far away from your thoughts about likening it to possibly an 18th century Hungarian Hussar`s sabre, both part of the Hapsburg empire and may well have been used by other countries within it. Having said that I am still unaware of the name of the Company, probably German, but not definite, who made them. In case you are interested the title of the book that I found this in is " The Encyclopedia of European Historical Weapons" by Dr Vladimir Dolinek and Dr Jan Durdik published in GB in 1993.
Thank you again for your input which is always much appreciated.
Regards
Miguel
Miguel |
Hi Miguel,
My entries on these interesting topics you are posting are entirely my pleasure and I appreciate the queries and opportunity to revisit notes and references to continue learning from them.
I agree the sheer heft of this blade well corresponds to the sabres of the Hapsburgs and Eastern Europe. These often heavily radiused chopping type blades dramatically influenced European cavalry forms from the second half of the 18th century along with their fashion and tactics in the 'hussar' type flair. That these type of sabre blades became enormously popular in India came through the British cavalry units there, in fact the M1796 light cavalry sabre which was fashioned after these Austrian and Hungarian style sabres remained in use through the 19th century in India.
If there are no markings on the blade, while it may be German made, many blades from Austria also came from locations in Styria. These however were usually marked.
I think the 'Dungarpuri' designator for this style of hilt probably came from G,N.Pant ("Indian Arms & Armour" 1980, Lahore), in which the author boldly but arbitrarily classified numbers of hilts on tulwars etc. While we may regard these as benchmarks drawn most likely from certain consistency or provenances (he was a museum official), it is most difficult to regionally assign classifications as most of these styles occurred outside any rigidly observed boundaries.
The primary region for the majority of hilt styles is the huge geographic area of Rajasthan, and most of the regional designators given are places found in Rajasthan, including Dungapur.
The 'stem' feature projecting from the pommel of the hilt feature of course is one which is most often associated with Rajputs, and the 'khanda' (or firangi). In most cases these are elongated, but this interesting much shorter and actually perpendicularly configured form would suggest more a vestigial presence than that of extension for hand grip feature of the khanda basket hilt forms.
I commend your notice of the varying designs found in the inner bowl of the pommel surround, which are often overlooked in photos and discussion of examples. This aspect of identifying features on tulwars was greatly emphasized by our own Jens Nordlund many years ago, and its importance much realized accordingly.
We are anxiously awaiting an important work on Indian weapons by Dr. Robert Elgood, which I understand will include a great deal of material on tulwars and classifications of them. While Dr.Pant's venerable work has been most useful all these years, we look forward to the new work in this book which will augment and advance our knowledge on these swords.
All best regards
Jim