Chowmahalla Palace Arms Collection
 

Hi everyone,
I had the chance to visit the Chowmahalla Palace in Hyderabad, India today and I thought I'd share some of the pics. The palace is essentially a summer pavilion, very nicely built. It has a small collection of furniture and personal objects on display, nothing exciting. I walked quickly through it, passed a little door, through a narrow corridor, into two very large rooms with an orgy of Indo-Persian weaponry. Enjoy!!

Emanuel

And the good stuff...

2

3

4

5

Last one

What is quite fascinating is the sheer range of styles. Hyderabad's Nizam collected from all over the sub-continent. The high number of straight tulwars is also interesting.

With the exception of the chain mail and the "cobra" blade none of this stuff was labelled. The exhibition method is also weird. Everything in glass boxes up on the high walls. it was very difficult to get good shots and impossible to do close-ups without a tripod and with all the light reflections.

So it's all eye-candy, what you see is what I saw.

Next up is the Salar Jung Museum here in the city, which is said to boast one of the largest arms collections in the world.

Stay tuned...

Emanuel

Salaams Emanuel ~ Stunning ... Brilliant ! Well done in cataloguing that for the forum library... The only museum in the world where you need a telescopic lens or a 30 foot ladder to see the exhibits! :) It is quite amazing that a lot of these museums have unlabelled work and none have heard of interactive displays... At least there were a few with descriptions ... but looking at the depth of stuff up the walls it is an incredible collection. :shrug:
Regards,
Ibrahim al Balooshi.

O! M! G! :eek: I think I just died and went to heaven! Best post evar!!!

Such a shame that in all of my visits to India I never made it to Hydrebad

Wow!
Thanks for sharing Emanuel.

Simply stunning. Thank you!
Steve

Thank you very much for taking so many excellent photos under difficult circumstances, and for sharing them with us.

Great stuff thanks!

I too must say thank you for taking and sharing these wonderful photos.


Robert

HOLY SMOKES!!!!

Awesome presentation, thank you!

Off to the classics I hope!

With thanks

Gav

Hey,


One interesting fact of this museum is the high number of watered blades too...!!!!

The thing I hate about these museum's is most of the swords/daggers displayed are with their scabbard on ...you cannot enjoy seeing them at your fullest...!!!!!!

@ Emanuel: Don't have toooo high hopes about the Salar Jung for they have a good collection of arms but only a few are displayed...!!!!

The best thing to watch out for there is the sheer number of daggers in different colors of Jade hilts and archer rings...!!!!

But you cant take snaps there...!!!!

Also visit the State archaeology museum near the Public gardens...some good arms out there toooo...

Lets catch up sometime while you are still in Hyderabad...there are some arms displayed from relic finds in Golconda and Qutub Shahi tombs too.

Regards,
Bhushan

Wow. Thanks for sharing!

Glad you like the show :)

Yes many of these blades were indeed very beautiful wootz. It was too hard to photograph the patterns though. To its credit the display room did have an information poster about "watered steel". I also thought it a good thing that they presented the sword typologies/nomenclature.

One interesting thing concerning the karud/pesh-kabz with quartz handle - notice there is no tang, the blade simply attached at the top of the handle. Obviously not meant for use, despite the T-spine blade. I remember seeing similar daggers with ivory hilts and stub tangs.

I thought the huge khukri blade with khanda hilt very interesting, and the monstrous zulfikar blades are pretty cool. A very nice collection overall.

Bhushan, sure thing! I'll be in touch.

E

Wow! What an amazing collection, Thank you Emmanuel for taking the time to do this.

Spiral

Awesome! It's like Disney Land for Adults!!!

Beautiful items thanks for taking the pictures and sharing them.

Very nice! thanks Emanuel!

One of the swords with cartouches has a date... 932 Hijri! nice.

WOW! Fascinating post - you are most fortunate to have enjoyed this in person!

Dan

Thank you very much for sharing! :)

You must have had a very exciting day over there , Emanuel. Must have been the best day of your holiday so far. Thanks for sharing this.

Glad you guys like them :)

Abdullatif that's why I took the picture of the swords with cartouches, I was hoping someone would catch the dates ;) 1525 though strikes me as too early for such a piece.

Actually I was at the Palace for only about an hour before closing so I was frantically trying to take the pictures before getting kicked out. I'm here in Hyderabad with work so Sundays are really the only time for exploration.

More to come next week!

Hello Emanuel,

Many thanks indeed for taking the time to post such a beautiful selection. Hopefully one day I can see them in person!

Chris

Well folks, I had hoped to show you more from the Salar Jung Museum but sadly they did not allow entry with cameras.

The museum is undergoing total renovation so things were a mess, but the arms actually on display were quite nice.

A fair number of swords of all kinds, unfortunately all of them in scabbard. The collection has a huge number of jade-hilted daggers of all kinds. Jade + gems + gold/silver + enamel, lots of it. A good number of rock crystal handles as well. Invariably these daggers do not have tangs. The blades might be amazing, but such knives were purely ornamental.

Another interesting thing is this "monstrous" zhulfiqar-type tulwar with serrated edges. When it first came up on the forum, it was opined that, based on the hilt, it might be an 18th century type, but that the blade might be later 19th century. In the pictures above (post #7) you can see two identical pieces from the Chowmahalla Palace collection. I saw two more, nearly identical at the Salar Jung museum, with the same beefy tips and serrations, with matched khanda basket hilt and blade. So we have four examples in Hyderabad, where they enjoyed some popularity with both the Nizams and their prime ministers (salar jungs).

Has anyone seen them elsewhere in India? Could these be a native Deccani type, or were these collected as curiosities by the Hyderabadi rulers? Upon re-reading the old "Monstrous..." thread I see that Jim's nickel is very well placed, as usual :) . B.I. considered the handle of southern style but couldn't reconcile the Islamic zhulfiqar symbology with the Deccan. Hyderabad seems to fit the bill.

Emanuel

Now i know where all the good stuff is hidden...