How old is the kora, as a type?

[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Jim, from your mail it is clear, that you have put a lot of time into your answer – thank you.

In Hindu Arms and Ritual, page 252, Robert Elgood writes: “Kora, Nepalese, Bengali and Orissan sword, the blade broadening and curving slightly as it gets further from the hilt. The form is early though most examples date from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Nigam states that it appears in a sculptured panel in the Mukhalingesvara Temple, Mukhalingam, capital of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, second half of the eighth century. Seven examples are in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer inventory of 1674 where they are described as East Indian Sabres. Another in Copenhagen has an Indian hilt and a Danish blade bearing the mark of Christian V.
The kora is generally described by modern writers as Nepalese but appears to be particularly associated with Bengal. A kora in the Kandy Museum, Sri Lanka, is said to be the weapon of the last executioner”.

I have checked the information about the Royal Danish Kunstkammer, and in the book Ethnographic Objects in The Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen 1980, it says that in year 1674 they had seven and in year 1689 they had eight ‘Ostindische krumsabler’. The text is on page 107 and two of the koras are shown on page 108. King Christian V (1646-1699). I don’t know if the one with the kings mark has a Danish blade or not, as the book only mentions the items in the collection, the mark could also have been made after the kora arrived in Copenhagen. There is however a chance that the Danes made trade blades, as they had a small trade colony, Tranquebar, on the southeast coast of India.

I have mailed the Danish National Museum to ask if the blade with Christian V’s mark really is Danish made, and to which degree the Danes made trade blades for India – I hope I get an answer.

Quoting Robert I left something out, maybe I should not have, as he writes ‘See Bughalee’. It is also in the glossary, and says, ‘Bughalee. Term used by Fanny Parks in the nineteenth century as synonymous with a korah (kora). See Parkes II, p. 143. Then something about the koras in Denmark, and he ends. The weapon appears to be particularly associated with Bengal’.

[spiral]

Jim, In the Nepali national museam , there are kora of the style we are most familar with, dating to the mid. 16th century. The oldest belonging to Draya Shah the founder of the Gorkha kingdom in around 1560.

I will dig out a photo. {not a brilliant one unfortuanatly.}

Jens I am fascinated about the Danish Kora have you any pictures you can share?

Spiral

[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Spiral,

So, in Nepal we are back around 1560, with a kora style we are familiar with, I wonder how much further back it can be traced in the Himalayas. I may be difficult, as there were not many travellers in these parts at the times, besides caravans during a few summer months, when the passes were passable.
I must admit, the more I look at the picture posted by BI in post #2, it looks as if it could be a very early type of a kora, straighter than we know them, but then again, that is the way I think the sword must have started – but that is pure guessing on my side.
Earlier I thought that the kora could have been used in Deccan and maybe in Bengal, but now it seems as if it was a common weapon. Only in many books it is not even mentioned, which could mean, that it went out of use, the tulwar and the shamshir types taking over. Meaning the blades of most of the koras were made into tulwar and shamshir blades, as steel was expensive and had to be reused, old blades as well as when the blade tradition changed.
It is funny to think that for a long period of time, the Afghans ruled in Bengal, but the kora cant have appealed to them, or one would have seen it used in Afghanistan.

The only picture I have shows only two of the eight koras. Notice the different tips.

[spiral]

Thankyou Jens. Fascinating.
~Interesting pommel styles as well.

Heres the photo I mentioned, sorry its a poor one, it was the first display case ,I came across & I could see more aluring ones ahead.

Meant to go back to this one but got sidetracked.

Weapons of Draya Shah c.1560.

Spiral

photo. copywrite, Spiral JRS 2005.
may only be used with acknowledgment.