Is this a Firangi ?

[Nihl]

Originally Posted by Jerseyman

Frustrating though the "name game" can be, one thing this forum does extremely well is to keep asking the questions, pushing the research, adding layer upon layer of information and incrementally pulling the picture of each weapon context into clearer focus. It can be a contentious process sometimes but no less valuable for the occasional verbal tussle.

However, this is a large forum encompassing a broad body of knowledge, and the search function is sometimes, through no fault of its own, not as forensic a tool as one might wish; sometimes purely through not knowing what term to search for.

Is there any merit in creating and perhaps pinning a thread, the sole purpose of which would be to create a snapshot of the current state of thought regarding the terminology of weapon nomenclature?

It could be divided geographically, list the common misnomer and then the currently held terminology with a link to the most relevant recent thread, and perhaps even a thumbnail reference image.

For those who care it would be an easy quick reference guide to stay au fait with the current thinking. I often struggle to stay up to date as my collection is eclectic and I can't keep all the threads in my memory. But I agree with Jim, Ariel and Nihl that it is an important element of our study and purpose.

Just a thought.

I think this is a wonderful idea, I'd even happily write the section on Indian terminology myself! I do feel it will definitely be quite the task though - perhaps it would be better to make a "master thread" that has links to separate posts for each region of the world. Otherwise if they were all in one post it might take so long to navigate that you would feel as though you were literally scrolling from one side of the world to another . That way too you could more easily incorporate images into each entry. Separate region-posts could have multiple replies in them, where each reply has a select amount of entries, followed by corresponding visual examples for each one. That way things could be much more organized, and you wouldn't have to be constantly clicking links or scrolling up-and-down to match an image with its entry.

Of course this wouldn't stop people from disagreeing with certain definitions, terms, or images being used as the "correct" representation of a certain kind of weapon, but maybe they could be diverted into a separate discussion thread for our dictionary

Even when dealing with items that have multiple different proposed names, or names that are somewhat vague in their actual meaning, as long as they are defined in writing and with an accompanying picture, I don't see a problem with including them all in such an otherwise linear or "objective" dictionary (or encyclopedia? wiki? what would be the best name for this?).

Some examples:

The Afghan khyber knife could be written as something to the affect of:

"Khyber Knife" Selaavah (Pashtun(?)). Transliterated as: "salavar" or "siliwar". Misnomers include: "charay" or "choora", "salavar/siliwar yataghan".
A 19th century native Afghani sword with an often T-backed, "kitchen knife"-shaped blade. Predominantly encountered in the khyber pass, but used by tribes throughout Afghanistan(?). Lengths and styles of decoration vary.
(If it isn't clear, given that I'm not an expert on the khyber knife, the bits with an "(?)" next to them are things I'm not sure about.)

Another one with the katar:

"Katar" Jamdhar (north indian?), Kattari (Tamil), Kattara (Sanskrit) Katar (Hindi). Misnomers include: "bundi knife/dagger".
A transverse-gripped "punch dagger", where the blade is oriented collinear with the forearm. Thought to have developed around the 10th century in eastern India, though it could be older. Used as a weapon into the 19th century; also used as a status symbol and was lavishly decorated for wealthy owners. Decoration styles varied regionally, and lengths were as variable.

And a more simple example with the pata:

"Pata" Dandpatta (Marathi). Transliterated as "puttah/pattah".
A "gauntlet sword" with the blade oriented collinear with the forearm. Thought to have developed from the hooded katar in the 16th century. In use until colonial times, where it was used purely in martial arts performances with a shortened gauntlet and flexible blade.

Edit: It probably would be good to specify the range of lengths that most of these items can be found in, but i got lazy . Same thing goes with adding images to them - I didn't feel like going through the trouble of attaching images for my "prototype" here.