Strtaight Blade Tulwar

Jim McDougall · 22nd March 2017, 07:52 AM

Robert, as you have already observed, this sword is pretty rudimentary, and probably not of great age. While the hilt is of course 'tulwar' in the standard Indo-Persian style, it is unusual to have a straight blade.

These are described in Rawson, ( "The Indian Sword", 1969, p.30, p.90),and termed in the south in Hindu parlance, 'sukhela', in the Deccan, the 'dhup', and in Mughal , in Persian 'asa shamsher' (=staff sword).

A number of these kinds of swords were found in the Tanjore armoury when it was broken up in 1863 (" The Old Tanjore Armory", Walhouse, 'Indian Antiquary', Vol. VII, 1878). While this example likely well post dates this event, I added that as a point of reference.
This does not seem to be a European blade which would of course have been so marked.
The term 'firangi' is applied generally to virtually all forms of Indian sword mounted with 'foreign' blade, and supercedes the locally recognized terms I most cases. Again, just for reference if this had been a European blade.

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22nd March 2017, 07:52 AM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,189	Robert, as you have already observed, this sword is pretty rudimentary, and probably not of great age. While the hilt is of course 'tulwar' in the standard Indo-Persian style, it is unusual to have a straight blade. These are described in Rawson, ( "The Indian Sword", 1969, p.30, p.90),and termed in the south in Hindu parlance, 'sukhela', in the Deccan, the 'dhup', and in Mughal , in Persian 'asa shamsher' (=staff sword). A number of these kinds of swords were found in the Tanjore armoury when it was broken up in 1863 (" The Old Tanjore Armory", Walhouse, 'Indian Antiquary', Vol. VII, 1878). While this example likely well post dates this event, I added that as a point of reference. This does not seem to be a European blade which would of course have been so marked. The term 'firangi' is applied generally to virtually all forms of Indian sword mounted with 'foreign' blade, and supercedes the locally recognized terms I most cases. Again, just for reference if this had been a European blade.