How old is the Kora, and from where does it origin?

[Jens Nordlunde]

I am reading in a booklet, ’A Catalogue of Arms and Armour in The State Museum, Hyderabad, A.P., 1975’, and here the author M. L. Nigam writes.

“In the eastern parts of Deccan, some new weapons seem to have been introduced to suit to the regional needs of the people. The ‘Kora’, which could produce deadly blows with its forward curved and broad tipped blade, appears, for the first time, in one of the sculptural panels carved in the second gate of the Mukhalingesvara temple at Mukhalinga,, the capital seat of the Eastern Ganga monarchs. The temple is datable to the second half of the eighth century AD. It may, therefore, be presumed that ‘Kora’, the favourite weapon of the Gurkhas, had come in vogue by the middle of eight century AD”.

If the Kora, in the second half of the eight century was fully developed, it suggests to me, that it, as a type, must be quite a bit older, but from where did it come - any suggestions?