Ariel, your mail is very interesting, something I have thought of now and again, but I don’t think it is as easy to solve, as it seems to be.
A sword with an Indian hilt, will by most, be called a tulwar. Some who would want to be more precise, would call it a tulwar with an Indian blade, or a tulwar with a shamshir blade – so far I don’t see any problems, but when you see a tulwar hilt with a yataghan blade, it is not a tulwar any more, the hilt does not ‘decide’ any more. Then it is the blade, which ‘decides’ what it is called, the same goes for a kirach and for other types.
It is true that some of the better hilts have survived more than on blade, but sometimes you can see very old blades with newer hilts – as if the owner wanted to follow the fashion, but still wanted to keep the blade his ‘Grandfather’ used. It is difficult to say why this is, but one of the reasons could be, be course a blade had been used much, and therefore been grinded too much to be useful, so it went back into the furnace to be reused, but the hilt being an expensive one, of good quality, was still looking fine, and as quality hilts were expensive – it was used again. It could also be, ‘it has been in the family for many years’ or it could be due to the economy buying a new quality hilt.
I understand they have similar problems in other countries, but there as well as with Indian weapons I doubt we will find a solution, as the different names have been used for far too long to change them now.
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