Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Jens Nordlunde · 5th September 2009, 05:08 PM

Gav,

Too much knowledge about the Indian weapons have gone lost over the centuries, either be course it was not written down, or maybe be course it was burned during one of the many fires after the battles, so what we do, is trying to put the few pieces we have/can find together to get a picture of how it was. On the literature I would say, if you have less books on the subject than you have weapons, you have too many weapons – or perhaps, too few books.

I would be very surprised if studying the Indian weapons could be turned into an exact science, as there are so many aspects involved. Trade, looting, armouries being emptied by the English Raj, some weapons sold while others were sent to the iron mills, the emptying of armouries late 19th century by dealers, and early 20th century, also by dealers – who, for different reasons did not tell from which armouries the weapons came, so a lot of evidence has been destroyed along the way, or the truth not told, and even to day you can find weapons on the market, which recently have left the armoury of a Maharaja, unofficially. Sometimes specific markings are removed to destroy evidence of from which armoury the weapon came.

So, with time and patience it is sometimes possible to pinpoint a weapon, or maybe a hilt – but it takes a lot of time and a lot of reading.

5th September 2009, 05:08 PM	#20
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Gav, Too much knowledge about the Indian weapons have gone lost over the centuries, either be course it was not written down, or maybe be course it was burned during one of the many fires after the battles, so what we do, is trying to put the few pieces we have/can find together to get a picture of how it was. On the literature I would say, if you have less books on the subject than you have weapons, you have too many weapons – or perhaps, too few books. I would be very surprised if studying the Indian weapons could be turned into an exact science, as there are so many aspects involved. Trade, looting, armouries being emptied by the English Raj, some weapons sold while others were sent to the iron mills, the emptying of armouries late 19th century by dealers, and early 20th century, also by dealers – who, for different reasons did not tell from which armouries the weapons came, so a lot of evidence has been destroyed along the way, or the truth not told, and even to day you can find weapons on the market, which recently have left the armoury of a Maharaja, unofficially. Sometimes specific markings are removed to destroy evidence of from which armoury the weapon came. So, with time and patience it is sometimes possible to pinpoint a weapon, or maybe a hilt – but it takes a lot of time and a lot of reading.