Very good points Jens.
In books and research I have found that even prehistoric man marked and embellished his weapons, as these were not only sacred and valuable, but vital to his very life. These marks were of course most often imbuements of power and strength, much as with the animist totems the people, later tribes, would adopt.
Man was tribal long before civilization, but as this developed, along with religions and other civil organizations formed, these totemic symbols and values became inherent in more permanent things such as architecture.
We know that most Indian weapons have been structured in varied degree after architectural elements, with those of temples and religious structures such as virigals and stupas being the literal foundation for such designs .
As Robert Elgood well showed in "Hindu Arms and Ritual", the weapons were often considered to be in essence de facto temples which would actually be visited or even inhabited by the gods and goddesses in the pantheons.
Jewellery was in effect much the same, with key religious symbolism which would provide individuals with talismanic and amuletic protection as well as invocational features to the Faith of the wearer.
These facts emphasize that the decorative features and motif displayed in the iconography and designs in both religious architecture and jewellery may hold valuable clues toward understanding the decoration in these arms.
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