The Sinhalese Kastane: Its Development, Decoration and Symbolism

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by napoleon

salaams ibrahiim,thanks for the link to piha kaetta,the bird headed ones are most unusual,the one holding the ball,could this be an adaptation of the chinese dragon chasing the pearl of wisdom i wonder ,great link though regards napoleon

Salaams Napoleon...The dragon chasing feiry pearl design was indeed transmitted to Persia from Chinese style and is seen there on various ceramic and other materials as a decorative feature, however, insofar as a link to a birdhead holding what appears to be an egg on an Indian hilt (and regarding a possible design link to Kastane)~ that is a quantum leap and for me a bridge too far.

The bottleneck we are trying to penetrate beyond is the 1505 point when first the Europeans set foot in Sri Lanka..

Were Kastane produced before that time (and for how long?) or was there some collusion with the Portuguese working with Royal Workshops? In other words did the Portuguese introduce a basic design from European sword style upon which The Sri Lankan craftsmen built the lavish design or was it entirely unrelated...and a home produced item ?...If so is there influence from European swords into the region by other means perhaps from the Sri Lankan Moors or overland up the silk road then South through India or via other sea ports and thus other points of the ethnographic compass including Buddhist/Hindu sources from Java, Tibet, China and what is, if any, the connection to Nimcha style?

Your previous post refers to 1638 but that cannot be an accurate start point ... Potentially if the sword was home grown the date could be vastly earlier ...and simply could not be established suddenly at that point... thus I illustrate potential earlier production based upon the religious designs shown and backed by early proven steel production, Royal Workshops with known artesan castes; ...specialist horn and wood carvers, bladesmiths, Gold and Silver craftsmen etc etc

Of course notes on the general subject are most welcome however you seem to be intent on laying down a "how to research structure" that is simply not relevant(I regret that neither can I see a tie up in the two dates your refer to except that they are plucked at random from this thread), however, any researched facts on the subject to hand will be well received. Research so far has included countless hours of grinding through documents and references both in text books and the massive load of detail at web. Whilst we are not anywhere near a complete understanding of this weapon quest... "The Kastane conundrum" ...is well advanced compared to a few years ago..and we are at the cutting edge in that regard.

Put another way Napoleon... If you can see a gap in the research please feel free to examine that ... produce the research and fill the missing void... as you say ...the ink is free and there is nothing wrong in asking the question...and far less wrong in adding detail.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.