Your chillanum is from the 17th c.

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Just a short note:

I was very surprised to see in all the litterature, including recent books from the best experts that the chillanum are always dated from the 17 th c.

To me it smells like rubbish... Authors and experts are just repeting an "established" fact without any serious evidence than quoting each others...

Why not 16 th c.? And due tothe large number of these daggers 18th and 19th c. too... Do we have chillanum during the 18th and 19th c.?

Best,
Kubur

In its origin "cilanum" ("khapwa" is more correct) is old Indian dagger. Under the influence of the Mughals, Turks and Afghans in the 17th and 18th centuries it was ousted and replaced by khanjars and peshkabs (especially in 18th when stright Afghan peshkabz - karud began to spread).