Nayar temple sword

[Kmaddock]

Hi all
Got lucky at an auction this week with the attached sword.
I managed to spot what it was without much competion and there was an accompanying bayonet which I sold today for more than I paid for three items. I actually made a 12 euro profit on the whole deal and there is another knife in the mix as well I have yet to look at properly.

Anyway I digress to the awful subject of money.

I have been looking up about these swords since I spotted this last week
A non fighting sword used in religious processions and ceremony’s in southern India.

It seems to be a typical example with 3 holes for charms/ bells on the blade and 2 loops on the handle,
V flexible blade with some rust nibbles

Nice to have one of the sets of charms on the blade, they basicly look like droplets of metal which rattle together.

There also is ringlet of steel in the handle which can rattle back and forth

It is quiet rusty but surprisingly solid underneath( with the seeming obligatory white paint spots that you get on uncared for weapons that seemingly lie in barns and sheds before being put in auctions). I am obviously going to clean off the surface rust but I probably won’t go back as far as raw metal as I prefer to under clean than go to clean metal, would you agree.

I know these are hard to age but I am guessing late 18th early 19 thcentury. Again would you agree or have any opinion.

Thanks again for the forum knowledge and archives for enabling me to recognize what this is and add to my collection

I will put up some posts after the rust cleaning for the sake of completion.

Any and all comments welcome.

Regards

Ken