[Jens Nordlunde]

Hi Bill,

Interesting question you bring up. I am interested in the same, when it comes to Indian weapons, but the information’s are far apart and very seldom found in books on weapons. Now and again pieces of information can be found, in books written by anthropologists or in books written by travellers, and in many of the places, where the symbols were used, the meanings are now forgotten.

In the book The Agaria (Oxford University Press, 1942) the author Verrier Elwin tells about the Agarian clan, and about one of the tribes. The Agarians were a clan of smiths living in Deccan, and they used to burry a piece of iron in front of their house door, to keep bad spirits and illness from the house, and about one of the tribes the story goes (as I remember it). Many, many years ago the tribe was attacked by snakes and some died, so the old men decided that all snakes should be killed to punish them, until one day, one of the old men said, ‘maybe if we honour and respect the snakes, they will help and protect us’ – and so it was, from that day on, the snake was the tribes talismanic symbol, and no doubt used on their weapons and in other relations. Have a look at the prehistoric cave paintings, showing animals, which the tribe either hunted or had chosen for their totem.

When it comes to the more ‘modern’ time, the weapons we are collecting, I think some of the very old symbols are still used, together with ‘newer’ symbols, like maybe floral symbols, as not everything used was only for decoration, a lot had a symbolic value, but it is hard to prove which is which. Maybe one day when one of the very old Sanskrit books, not yet translated, have been translated – the veil will be lifted, for at least part of the puzzle.

When i come to think of it, the stones used for decoration were not only used for their decorative value - at least many of them, also had a symbolic meaning.