Tulwar....?

Jim McDougall · 1st July 2015, 12:17 PM

The 'name game' often becomes a slippery slope as these classifications seem often debated and conflicting in various sources.
This (very nice example BTW) sword of course has the very familiar hilt we all know as the 'Indo-Persian' form characteristic of Indian 'tulwars'.
It should be remembered that 'tulwar' is a rather generally applied term in India for sword, and often is used referring to shamshirs or other forms of sabre in many cases.

Rawson does, as I recall, use the term 'sukhela' as Rick as noted, for a 'tulwar' with a straight blade.

It would seem that one could safely use the term sukhela here, but technically 'tulwar' would suffice. Sometimes when getting too touchy about terms it is safer to use descriptive or qualifying character of the weapon, but seems unnecessary for simple classification.

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1st July 2015, 12:17 PM	#6
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,194	The 'name game' often becomes a slippery slope as these classifications seem often debated and conflicting in various sources. This (very nice example BTW) sword of course has the very familiar hilt we all know as the 'Indo-Persian' form characteristic of Indian 'tulwars'. It should be remembered that 'tulwar' is a rather generally applied term in India for sword, and often is used referring to shamshirs or other forms of sabre in many cases. Rawson does, as I recall, use the term 'sukhela' as Rick as noted, for a 'tulwar' with a straight blade. It would seem that one could safely use the term sukhela here, but technically 'tulwar' would suffice. Sometimes when getting too touchy about terms it is safer to use descriptive or qualifying character of the weapon, but seems unnecessary for simple classification.