Tulwar with inscription - Help needed

[ariel]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

1....those downward angled quillons suggest much earlier hilts, and this example seems almost stylistically aligned with the distinct 'paluoar' of Afghanistan. In the 19th century these regions were regarded as 'India' and as seen in Egerton (1885) these paluoars were included the the tulwar spectrum as far as type.

2.While in the linked thread some of the examples had what appeared to be machine etched copies of this blade motif, but yours as I noted seems (visually) to resemble acid etched character, and the corrosive activity seems to support that.

3.After seeing the linked discussion, the three orb symbol comes to mind again, and indeed this was the 'cintamani' which is traditional hallmark represented throughout Central Asian material culture. In India it occurs often as the 'trimurti' and three dots often seen repeated on tulwars, but typically in the north. The 'three' is of course seen symbolically in other cases in religious symbolism, but here, it is the 'cintamani' of Tamerlane, who these people proudly claim their descent from.

1. Up until 1948 NW India included both current India and Pakistan. Till now, the westernmost Pakistan contains the so-called Pakhtunkhwa district that is populated by the same Pashtuns as Afghanistan. The current border follows the Durand line, and successive Afghani governments tried in vain( and still do) absorb the Pakhtunkhwa district. Thus, Afganistan controls the eastern entry , and Pakistan the western entry into the Khyber Pass. Realistically it was a wise decision from the British point of view since it theoretically prevented any invasion.

2. I fully agree. The decorator used very strong acid and exposed the blade to it for a long time. As a result there was a lot of corrosion and the bottom part of some channels got eaten away laterally, underneath the surface.

3. I am in favor of a "Tamerlane" version rather than of " Indian Trimurti". The inscription is Islamic, and Babur, the conqueror of NW India, claimed his descent from both Chingiz Khan and Tamerlane.
Here are two Tamerlane coins with classic round ring symbols arranged in a triangle. Later Tamerlane descendants proudly kept this tamga .