Sinhala / Sri Lankan Swords?

[Jim McDougall]

Pics from Boccia & Coelho ("Armi Bianche Italiene", 1975, #516-519), this is an Italian sword presented to Philip III of Spain by Carlo Emanuel I of Savoy (1562-1630) apparently in 1603.

Worthy of note, the lionhead, and the 'monster head' on the scabbard tip.
While the blade is more of a narrow type with yelman rather than the form on the Hasekura example, these other features are interesting in considering influences present in Spain prior to the mission's arrival.

[Jim McDougall]

This is a falchion stated German from Stone (1934, p.224, #276) and stated 15th century. There is little information in text in Stone on this sword, its reference is shown as "A Cyclopedia of Costume or Dictionary of Dress" (James R. Planche, N.Y. 1877).

Please note the pronounced peak on this example, resembling this notable feature on the Hasekura sword. While the German provenance is of course distracting from our focus on Spain, and Italy, it is important to note that going through Calvert (1907, "Spanish Arms & Armour") there are profusely examples of German armour supplied to Spanish nobles and monarchs.
Armourers were typically actually 'brokers' and assembled harness components from many subcontracted artisans. With this they often furnished swords in many cases.

The 15th century classification is of course considerably earlier than the period we are discussing, but these blade profiles remained prevalent for many generations, even centuries with tradition bound Spain .

[Jim McDougall]

Another grouping of stortas from Boccia & Coelho (upper left #509) is from Venice c.1600.

(upper right, #543, #544) are both from Naples c. 1600-10

below #386, 387, 388 are from Venice c 1550, note the recurved crossguards reflecting basic form of developing hit system, also the human and lionheads.

* The late Tony North in his "Late 15th Century Italian Sword" (Connoisseur, 1975) notes the developed hilt system similar to nimcha of North Africa and of course kastane probably developed from this type sword hilt, citing Charles Buttin with concurring views.

Quite interesting is the sketch of a zoomorphic head in carved ivory from Italy (#389) dating from c1554. Of note, the deeply channeled fullers cf. those seen in the Hasekura kastane. Again, there are many Italian swords with these deeply channeled fullers, often in elaborate sectioning.

[Jim McDougall]

At last! I finally completed my three posts with images, posts #249, 250 and 251. Due to scanner issues I enlisted the help of my wife (my tech support) to use her phone to take these, so sorry for the drawn out grouping.

#249: Images of the Philip III sword from c1603, where this sword is in the Royal Armouries of Madrid as catalogued by Calvert in 1907. It is illustrated in "Armi Bianchi Italiene" (1975, opcit. and text on p.390).

What interesting here is the lionhead on this sword (of European form of course) and most notably the monster head on the scabbard tip .

It would seem that the use of figure heads was in place in Italy, and possibly elsewhere in Europe by mid 16th century, and as seen here, this and the 'monster' head were already featured on swords in Spain prior to the Hasekura mission.

If indeed the blade was produced in Spain placing this type of monster head on the peak of the blade, and spurious markings (as often placed) were added, could the second marking be a European attempt at Japanese characters?
I think we can rule out China as a place for blade provenance, and as seen, the Philippine possibility is out. Oriental influences seem quite present by the time of this sword c.1603.

The other images are pretty much explained in each post.

I want to note that these images and data are from the books referenced and photos using phone as noted.



***** Note: Apparantly there is conflict in whether the kastane and keris were acquired by Hasekura in Madrid at audience with Philip III.....or in another account which suggests these were obtained in Philippines -on behalf of Philip III ? Naturally confirmation of which is important in the consideration of these comparative examples.

[Prasanna Weerakkody]

Dear KukulzA

I am including a few references regarding a basic timeline of Sri Lankan swords primarily from the publication “Ancient Swords Daggers & Knives in the Sri Lankan museums” by P.H.D.H.De Silva and S. Wickramasinghe (2006)

You are correct that the Kasthana and the D guard swords are the last common forms of the Sinhala swords. The earliest swords where evidence survive from the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa kingdoms going back more than 2000 bp. were mostly down curved swords and straight long double edged blades. There are many forms of short curved and Gladius type weapons illustrated but with little surviving artifacts. the early types are always simple and in-ornate. the transformation of ornate arms (in general) is possibly in the Gampola or Dambadeni kingdom era and couple of centuries prior to the arrival of the portuguese. the massive destruction wrought on by the portuguese destroyed most of the incidental evidence that would have assisted in constructing a proper timeline.

Vandoo the proper spelling is Sri Lanka and not SIRI Lanka

Regards
Prasanna

[Prasanna Weerakkody]

sorry images failed to attach- re sending

Prasanna

[Prasanna Weerakkody]

Adding two more swords. including "Kandy ritual sword" extracted from a paper by G.L.Anandalal Nanayakkara (included in the above publication) which I believe is a valuable link as a transitional surviving link between the polonnanruwa era swords and the Kasthana. it also contain predecessors of the animal forms on the guards as well.

p.s. there is a class of replica weapons used in Devala and Kovils where different deities are worshiped. the arms used usually parallel actual arms in use at the time. so IF this was only a "ritual sword" there was very likely a real arm as well at that period of a similar form.

prasanna