Chowmahalla Palace Arms Collection

[dbhmgb]

WOW! Fascinating post - you are most fortunate to have enjoyed this in person!

Dan

[Sajen]

Thank you very much for sharing!

[Henk]

You must have had a very exciting day over there , Emanuel. Must have been the best day of your holiday so far. Thanks for sharing this.

[Emanuel]

Glad you guys like them

Abdullatif that's why I took the picture of the swords with cartouches, I was hoping someone would catch the dates 1525 though strikes me as too early for such a piece.

Actually I was at the Palace for only about an hour before closing so I was frantically trying to take the pictures before getting kicked out. I'm here in Hyderabad with work so Sundays are really the only time for exploration.

More to come next week!

[mrcjgscott]

Hello Emanuel,

Many thanks indeed for taking the time to post such a beautiful selection. Hopefully one day I can see them in person!

Chris

[Emanuel]

Well folks, I had hoped to show you more from the Salar Jung Museum but sadly they did not allow entry with cameras.

The museum is undergoing total renovation so things were a mess, but the arms actually on display were quite nice.

A fair number of swords of all kinds, unfortunately all of them in scabbard. The collection has a huge number of jade-hilted daggers of all kinds. Jade + gems + gold/silver + enamel, lots of it. A good number of rock crystal handles as well. Invariably these daggers do not have tangs. The blades might be amazing, but such knives were purely ornamental.

Another interesting thing is this "monstrous" zhulfiqar-type tulwar with serrated edges. When it first came up on the forum, it was opined that, based on the hilt, it might be an 18th century type, but that the blade might be later 19th century. In the pictures above (post #7) you can see two identical pieces from the Chowmahalla Palace collection. I saw two more, nearly identical at the Salar Jung museum, with the same beefy tips and serrations, with matched khanda basket hilt and blade. So we have four examples in Hyderabad, where they enjoyed some popularity with both the Nizams and their prime ministers (salar jungs).

Has anyone seen them elsewhere in India? Could these be a native Deccani type, or were these collected as curiosities by the Hyderabadi rulers? Upon re-reading the old "Monstrous..." thread I see that Jim's nickel is very well placed, as usual . B.I. considered the handle of southern style but couldn't reconcile the Islamic zhulfiqar symbology with the Deccan. Hyderabad seems to fit the bill.

Emanuel

[TimW]

Now i know where all the good stuff is hidden...

[Blacksmith]

Hi, they have a couple of these swords in Delhi, at the National Museum.They are displayed with the serrated naga sword, serrated sulfikar type tulwar, a whole steel mace and them all are labelled as `pahari`weapons.
Regards, Timo
ps. Hyderebad will be on my itinerary next time when going to India!