Kirach (or something) for comment

[Timo Nieminen]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

If it had a thin blade with reinforcement strips on the proximal edges, I'd definitely call it a khanda, since everything else matches. I'm a bit fuzzy on identifying khandas lacking those features. Is the tip shape alone sufficiently diagnostic to call it a khanda, and a kirach would be pointy and forward swept?

If by tip shape, you also mean the width relative to the width of the rest of the blade, I think so. With the reservation that the sword should also be Indian or Indian-style. People appear happy to call tulwar-hilted khandas with no reinforcing strips khandas, so the khanda-hilted version should be even more a khanda.

I wonder if people would call it a khanda if it had a European-style hilt? Or a Chinese or Japanese style hilt?

A kirach is usually described as a cut and thrust sword, so should have a pointy tip. I've seen swords described as "kirach" with completely straight blades, by which criteria a lot of firangi might be classifiable as kirach (but aren't classified as such), so there seems to be more to kirach-ness.