The change of an Indian weapon

[Jens Nordlunde]

The picture is from RobertElgood’s book, Hindu Arms and Ritual, page 83 pict. 8.13. ‘Gana holding a sword. Mahishamardini Cave Temple. Mid-seventh century’.

Most of the blade looks like a kukri, but the start of the blade and the pommel looks like an adya katti. The temple is situated about 40 miles south of Chennai (Madras) at a place called Mamallapuram, an important seaport known from the 2nd century.

This means that the stone sculpture, is situated at the south east coast in India, but the adya katti is know from the Indian south west coast, confined to a rather small area, and the kukri is of course the famous weapon from Nepal.

It seems as if the weapon has travelled from the east coast to the west coast and Nepal, only changing little on the way, but without leaving any trace on the way, at least not what I am aware of.

[Valjhun]

Jens,

It is only my deduction, but....I guess that we are looking to a predecessor of both the kukri and adja katti, Nice find.

[Lew]

Looks like a Greek kopis to me


Lew

[not2sharp]

How far does the record on khukuris go? My impression was that the khukuri was a relatively recent development. This may also be a form a yataghan. Are yataghans known to occur in the area?

n2s

[RomaRana]

Originally Posted by LOUIEBLADES

Looks like a Greek kopis to me


Lew

Or an Egyptian kopesh

[Jim McDougall]

Interesting observations on these forward angled blade weapons, many of which of course do descend from the Greek kopis in varying degree, including the yataghan which developed in Turkish and Balkan regions.
I think Jens comment on the associations with these ancient weapons to the kukri and ayda katti are very well placed. It is fascinating to examine the diffusion of these weapon forms throughout the Indian subcontinent, and the influences of the varying cultures being combined.

The kukri, as noted developing from these early weapons depicted iconographically in India as early as the beginning of the 7th c. , seems to have developed in Nepal sometime in the early 1600's. John Powell, who is by far the ultimate authority on the kukri ( and we are all hopeful of his book being published one day!! has noted the earliest known Nepalese kukri to be held in the arsenal museum in Katmandhu. This example is said to have been owned by Raja Drabya Shah, King of Gorkha, c.1627.
John notes further that the blade design was anciently used by the Egyptians as the khopesh, later by the Greeks as the kopis, and ultimately diffusing to the Macedonians (machiara) and the Romans and in Spain as the 'falcata'.

Best regards,
Jim

[B.I]

hi jens,
robert only showed a part of the whole sculpture. attached is the complete piece, with some other similarly armed figures. sorry for the poor quality, its night and i have to photograph indoors. as you say, its a very interesting piece of iconography that leads to many more questions.

[Jens Nordlunde]

Thanks for the answers. What surprises me is, that the kukri appears in Nepal relatively late, but must have disappeared from SE India centuries before, or we would have seen weapon of this type from the area. I don’t know for how long time they have been using the adya katti on the west coast, so this is another thing to dig into, although I have a feeling that it may have been used there for a long time.

The pictures BI is showing are very interesting, although I could have hoped for a better quality – but better this quality than no pictures at all.
It is clear to see on the pictures, that the pommels, and the beginning of the blades on the knives shown are like on an adya katti, and not like on a kukri, but the rest of the blade looks very much like the blade of a kukri.