Santali spiked parrying shield

[Jim McDougall]

Found this example, 19th c. from Assam.Egerton, 1896, p.91, cat.#216

Reminds me of the 'maru,madu, singuata' of Maratha, Bhil people west India.....which is a buckler mounted with opposed roebuck (antelope) horns used for parrying. It seems these were on occasion mounted with spikes. These kinds of weapons were akin to the creatively fashioned arms believed to be carried by fakirs (religious mendicants) who were not allowed to carry traditional 'weapons'. It seems there were variants such as the fakirs 'crutch' which had a spike etc. These kinds of weapons evolved into the dual bladed 'haladie' which while has been known as the knife often seen in Sudanese context, it generally held to have had Rajput origins.

It seems perhaps the concept of these bucklers might have earlier western India origins, via the Marathas, Rajputs, into Punjab and of course incursions eastward in earlier times, with these examples of bladed and spiked bucklers likely 19th c.

[David R]

Reminds me of some of the 16th and 17th cent. spiked and hooked targes and bucklers in Western Europe.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by David R

Reminds me of some of the 16th and 17th cent. spiked and hooked targes and bucklers in Western Europe.

Any examples? Not familiar with bucklers etc and the hook seems odd.

[David R]

https://www.arms-n-armor.com/blogs/n...ers-and-targes

[Battara]

For our records:

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Jose for entering the image, as noted for our records. The idea of these threads is to serve as an archived compendium of discussion, examples and material toward certain forms of arms through these. For those who use the SEARCH feature, as I do vehemently!!! these threads are a remarkable storehouse of knowledge!