9th March 2006, 05:45 PM | #1 |
Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Europe
Posts: 2,718
|
The change of an Indian weapon
The picture is from RobertElgood’s book, Hindu Arms and Ritual, page 83 pict. 8.13. ‘Gana holding a sword. Mahishamardini Cave Temple. Mid-seventh century’.
Most of the blade looks like a kukri, but the start of the blade and the pommel looks like an adya katti. The temple is situated about 40 miles south of Chennai (Madras) at a place called Mamallapuram, an important seaport known from the 2nd century. This means that the stone sculpture, is situated at the south east coast in India, but the adya katti is know from the Indian south west coast, confined to a rather small area, and the kukri is of course the famous weapon from Nepal. It seems as if the weapon has travelled from the east coast to the west coast and Nepal, only changing little on the way, but without leaving any trace on the way, at least not what I am aware of. |
|
|