Indian axe for comments and suggestions

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Royston,
The book by Gamble is an interesting novelty, and far from being useful in any in depth study of these weapons, however, as seen in this case, it does seem to at least give a benchmark in identification. In my opinion, the price you mention far exceeds its usefulness, and the copy I have is from many years ago.

The 'temple' denominator in describing weapons typically suggests that these items are likely either votive or ceremonial holdings that remain in the temple for use in various rituals. Thier profuse decoration and often elaborate elemental motif preclude thier effective use in the traditional warfare sense, and in many respects these weapons represents metaphoric or symbolic function. Probably one of the best books to own concerning not only these aspects of weaponry, but Hindu weapons in particular is Robert Elgood's "Hindu Arms and Ritual", which I believe parallels the price range you mentioned and is a monumental resource .

The 'temple' term in my opinion specifies use as noted, and sometimes these weapons are carried in processions in the sense of bearing swords etc.
The weapons specified as sacrificial, while often also highly decorated but in motif rather than elaborate dimensionally applied features, are of course intended for use, such as the ram dao of Nepal, tulwar hilted koras from Bengal and others.

The devanagari script, as Bhushan can probably better describe, in my understanding is essentially a primary form which often has local variation in characters incorporated, much like dialect in spoken language. I would also like to know if that perception is correct, as I am no linguist but often see this term used describing inscriptions on Indian weapons. I believe this is why trying to match the characters to the basic reference to devanagari alphabet is compelling, but the matches are not exact.

All best regards,
Jim