Question of Spear origins

[Gavin Nugent]

Well I have had about 30 spears and pole arms arrive on Friday and I've been enjoying going over each one in detail and this spear is very interesting.

It is long and it is very thin but strong and flexible though I'm sure I could snap it over my knee with ease today but it would have served as a very efficient weapon in its day when stronger and more supple.

The head, collar and butt cap are all iron with a heavy but perfectly stable age patina and the head is lethal with great piercing ability by design and the edges are so fine they would have been like razors in the day.
The shaft is bamboo which has been fully wrapped with a fine fibrous material and then lacquered thickly to smooth the surface which also shows a painted surface, this alone can point to India for many but...I'll come to that in a second.
The fine head has the iron collar which is actually four pieces stacked atop each other and offers great support for the tang in such fine thin bamboo.

An interesting lance was offered to me on Saturday at the Brisbane arms fair, the size of a typical Sumatran lance on a thin light shaft, it had a head so very similar in design but created slightly different. The most interesting aspect I found was the brass collar it was sitting it, it carried designs that were clearly Thai to my eye....keeping this in mind, perhaps Thailand? It is after all, although in no way ruling out India, so very different from the heavy iron heads seen on the South Indian lances shown above...this thing is in the feather weight division by comparison.

Any thoughts more than welcome.

Gav

[Gavin Nugent]

Thanks to those who have provided input this far....another step towards Thailand perhaps...I'm still looking down this road...

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...light=thailand

Note the spear of similar blade style, collar and thickness (and length if it rests on the ground) resting against this arch at the right (and one on the left)...

Has anyone other than Dan visited the Arms room of the Grand Palace Bangkok to comment first hand?? Nathaniel??

[Andrew]

Gav, I'm going to throw out a suggestion based on my admittedly unscientific "gut" feeling--Cambodia...

[Nathaniel]

Hello Gavin,

Missed your post on this thread otherwise I would have answered. Unfortunately, the three times we been to the Grand Palace, Chakri Maha Prasat hall that houses the arms room was closed. It's closed on the weekend and during the weekday it closes earlier than the temple of the Emerald Buddha which I did not know. I think if I remember right the building with the arms room might close by something like 3pm.

[Jim McDougall]

This is really an interesting thread, so its good to see it back. I really have little knowledge on both the fields of spears and SE Asian weapons, but looked into Elgood ("Hindu Arms and Ritual") to see if anything relevant might be there.
On p.194 (19.13) a 'sang' type spear (with katar style head of Vellore gauntlet form) attributed probably to Mysore and late 16th century has these rings or collars on the socket and in the same illustration is a 'vel' with peepal leaf shaped head, to early 16th c.
It is noted that these collars, termed 'balls' in this text are called 'nala'. Apparantly these are decoration related to certain ankusa which are symbolic of royalty (op.cit. p.21) and much as on the 'vel' lance are stated to reflect the god Murukan.
Perhaps this decoration is significant in this regard?

On. p.192 spearheads in South India carry similar collars just below the flare of the head in varying spaced configuration apparantly the motif from 15th-16th century Vijayanagara. The design still popular during the Mysore wars of 18th century.

While it appears these collared sockets are prevalent in South India, as well of course as in Sri Lanka, it does seem quite possible that the influence might have extended into SE Asian countries including Thailand and Cambodia. I think the enthusiasts of the dha and weapons of these countries would have better insight, but I thought I'd add these notes.

All the best,
Jim

[Nathaniel]

Gavin, love to see some more close ups & sharper pictures of the spear head from different sides and angles when you have time.

[Gavin Nugent]

Andrew, Nathaniel, Jim, Thanks for chiming in.

Andrew I know little of the culture but I am all for Gut feelings. Another well versed in Thai arms collector also said I should likley be looking to the region of Cambodia and surrounds.

What I really need to do when time permits is look at lacquer work items from these regions. When you consider the inner shaft is bamboo and that the 'dips' or waists of each section has been resin wrapped in flaxen fiberous material to create a smooth tapering surface from end to end and then to have the surface lacquered black and painted, someone has gone to a lot of trouble to create a very fine spear.

Nathaniel, I will get more detailed images in the weeks to come.

Thanks again guys...if anything further comes to fruition I am all ears and thanks to Dan for posting that image all those years ago.

Gav

[Gavin Nugent]

Several years ago, I think I cracked this tough nut and only thought to update today...Sri Lanka.

It makes sense to see Sri Lankan spears in the Thai Royal Palace as the paths of Buddhism are long between Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Gavin